Without Ranma
by Shikoku
Summary: Akane, Ukyo, and Shampoo come up with their own solution to Ranma's fiancee problem. WARNING: Don't read if you're a die hard Ranma fan.
1. WR1: Beyond the Breaking Point

This is a story that Steel and I wrote a long time ago.

It's five years old now, but I still think it held up pretty good.

I hope you all like.

Characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.

"Without Ranma"  
Part One  
By Shikoku and Steel

"Ooooh! I don't BELIEVE him" Akane half screamed, half  
growled to the sky. Ranma had really gone TOO FAR this time!  
Not only had he insulted her cooking AGAIN (and he hadn't  
even tried it yet! After she'd gone to all the trouble to  
make it taste GOOD too! She'd even sampled it before hand to  
make sure!) but he'd insulted her martial artists skills too  
when she'd gone out to the dojo to blow off some steam.

He'd called her uncute (AGAIN!), called her slow, said she  
couldn't kick, that her thighs were too thick, that her hair was  
a cowlick, that she talked like a hick, was built like a  
stick, was dumb as a brick, that she was as stubborn as a  
mule, twice as ugly and just as strong!

Pausing as she stormed down the street, Akane took her fury  
out on a poor, helpless telephone pole. The fragile concrete  
spider-webbed from her punch and as she walked away, it  
broke in half and fell over, crashing to the sidewalk.

"Woah Akane.. what's the matter, sugar?"

Akane looked up from her dark cloud to see Ukyo standing  
there. She was apparently just getting back from the market,  
cause she had a bag of okonomiyaki ingredients slung  
casually on her back. She was also dressed up a bit nicer  
than usual with her hair pulled back in a low ponytail.

She growled an answer that Ukyo didn't quite catch. The one  
word the brunette DID get, explained everything. RANMA.

"Ah.." Ukyo nodded, lowering her bag. "What did Ran-chan do  
to you this time?" Most of the time she'd have been happy to  
see Akane mad at Ranma, if only because it would raise her  
own chances with him, but this time Ukyo was a bit worried  
about the short haired girl. She'd seen Akane mad, but never  
this much.

Akane hesitated before speaking. Ukyo was one of the rivals  
for Ranma and therefore a natural enemy, but out of all the  
others she fought with over the baka, she hated Ukyo the  
least. Looking at the brunette now, she seemed genuinely  
concerned. And Akane DID feel that she needed to talk to  
somebody.

The short haired girl sighed the kind of sigh reserved for  
those who'd been pushed just too far and now needed to blow  
off some serious steam. She nodded and motioned to Ukyo's  
restaurant that was across the street. "Let's go inside..  
I'll.. I'll tell you there." she said.

Ukyo gave Akane a warm smile and nodded. "Alright, sugar."

Together they entered the restaurant and after Ukyo put away  
her groceries, she started cooking up an okonomiyaki for  
Akane, as the youngest Tendo daughter sat across from her at  
the counter.

"So tell me, what's troubling you"

It took a little time, but once Akane started talking about  
her woes, everything just tumbled out like a raging flood  
that couldn't be stopped. She told Ukyo all about her  
cooking, how it was actually decent, even Kasumi thought so,  
and how Ranma had insulted it, saying it was probably worse  
than toxic waste, without even trying it first.

She then talked about the whole episode in the dojo where  
he'd mercilessly taunted and teased her.. By the time she  
finished telling her tale, she was nearly in tears from the  
memories.

Ukyo listened and even admitted to herself that her precious  
Ranchan WAS acting more like a jerk today than usual. She  
didn't think Akane was exaggerating or lying, either. The  
girl's tears were too real for that. Ukyo's compassionate  
side took over.

"Hush, girl" she said softly, hopping over the grill and  
counter. She gave Akane a big hug. "Everything's going to be  
alright.. You'll see."

Large tears tracked down Akane's cheeks. "Why Ukyo? Tell me,  
WHY does he say those things about me? I TRY to be a good  
fiancée, but nothing I do is ever good enough" The tears  
started coming harder now as all Akane's pent up  
frustrations came pouring out in an unstoppable torrent.

Ukyo blinked. It had never occurred to her that Akane was  
TRYING to be a good fiancée to Ranchan. She had always  
thought that Akane was completely against the whole  
situation and was trying to scare Ranma away.. or that she  
was just naturally short tempered and violent. But maybe..  
maybe.. it wasn't really Akane's fault at all..

She racked her brain for something to say, but even she was  
surprised when she responded"It's not your fault  
Akane-chan, some people are just plain insensitive and  
NOTHING you can do can change that. You shouldn't try so  
hard to please him sugar. Instead why don't you try to make  
YOURSELF happy.. and quit worrying what the baka or anyone  
else for that matter thinks of you." Ukyo tightened her hug.  
"It's not worth it."

"You should talk." Akane sniveled, but there wasn't any  
anger or hate in her words. Right now she was too  
emotionally drained to summon up any negative feelings  
toward Ukyo. Reaching for a napkin, Akane blew her nose and  
dried her eyes. She sighed and leaned into the brunette's  
embrace slightly, grateful for the support from a  
semi-friend.

Even though Akane didn't mean it as an insult, that  
statement was still a slap in the face for Ukyo. It released  
a flood of memories about what she had done to try to get  
Ranma to like her. Cooking for him to try to impress him,  
listening to his problems even though he rarely gave a damn  
about hers. Fighting over him with Kodachi, Shampoo and even  
Akane sometimes. Ganging up with Ryoga so they could break  
Akane and Ranma up.. and even all out attacking Akane on her  
wedding day, ruining the whole thing.

All these thoughts caused Ukyo to feel VERY ashamed of  
herself. "You're right.. Akane.." she said dully. "I am a  
hypocrite.. I care too much about what he thinks of me  
too.."

"So what should we do about it?" Akane asked, turning to  
look at Ukyo. "We need to stop falling all over ourselves  
for that.. that.. INGRATE. We're all acting like a bunch of  
pathetic lovesick ninnies and it needs to stop before  
somebody really gets hurt."

Ukyo nodded.. "That's true.. but I don't think Kodachi or  
even Shampoo could ever give up on him.. They still think  
he's quite a prize.. Heck, I don't even know if I could ever  
get completely over him.."

Akane sighed and sort of deflated, sagging into a slouch.  
"You're right, we're already in too deep, there's no point  
in trying to get out. Probably be stuck fighting over that  
idiot for the rest of our lives. Even if he DOES pick  
somebody, saying 'I do' certainly isn't going to solve  
anything cuz the others would just try to break them up.."  
She leaned her elbows on the counter and put her face in her  
hands. "Feels like I'm trapped in a hamster wheel with no  
way to get off..."

Ukyo shook her head, but what Akane said WAS true. They were  
all caught in some vicious cycle, which didn't seem to have  
an end to it in sight. Ukyo sighed as she sat down on a  
stool to think about this one..

After a few minutes with neither of them saying anything,  
Ukyo finally came up with a tentative suggestion.. "Maybe  
what we need to do, is to sit down and really talk about  
this with Shampoo and Kodachi.. Maybe the four of us could  
work this all out. Maybe they're just as tired of this as we  
are." Or at least find out that they ARE tired. Ukyo  
herself, had only just now seen how futile the whole Duel of  
the Fiancées was.

Akane turned her head to look at Ukyo. "You think they'd  
actually DO that?" she asked. She shook her head, turning it  
to stare back at the counter top. "Somehow I doubt they'd be  
willing to just sit down and TALK. They'd think it was some  
kinda trick or something.."

"I know" Ukyo nodded. "but at least it's SOMETHING.. Should  
we at least give it a try?"

Akane sighed deeply, still staring at the counter. Might as  
well give it a try, she mused. "Got nothing to lose." she  
said, shrugging.

"Unless they decide to kill us." Ukyo quipped, giving Akane  
a wry grin.

Akane rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. "Oh ha ha."  
she said, but couldn't keep the little grin from her lips.

Ukyo was glad to see Akane smile again. She honestly didn't  
like seeing the short-haired girl feel down. "I'll tell you  
what, we'll even make a little party outta it. How's that?  
You guys can all spend the night at my place.. less chances  
for ..distractions."

Akane thought about it for a moment, then she nodded.  
"Probably be the best idea." she said. "Certainly can't have  
it at the Dojo; too many eavesdroppers. And the Cat Cafe and  
Kuno Mansion are out for the same reasons.. Yeah, I guess  
here's the best place." She paused. "But what about  
Konatsu?"

"He won't bug us if I ask him not to." Ukyo answered.  
"Honestly, that kid would give me the moon if he possibly  
could. I'm just sorry that I can't seem to love him back the  
same way."

The dark haired girl nodded. Seemed all that was left was to  
convince the others to go along with it and that she and  
Ukyo DIDN'T have ulterior motives to get Ranma for  
themselves. But how to do that...?

"Don't worry, we'll worry about that later." Ukyo reassured  
her, seemingly hearing her thoughts. "Right now, I need to  
get them here. Is tonight good for you" she asked, picking  
up the phone.

Akane blinked. "Uh, yeah. Tonight's fine. How 'bout.. eight  
o'clock?" It would be a simple task to sneak out of the  
house.. that is, if Ranma didn't catch her first..

Ukyo nodded. "Eight it is then.." She started calling up the  
other fiancees, telling the both of them that she and Akane  
had something very important to talk to them about. Kodachi  
and Shampoo, both assuming that Ukyo was calling to tell  
them she was giving up Ranma, swore to be there. It was as  
simple as that. The hard part would be dealing with them  
once they got there..

Sighing again, Akane rubbed her hands over her face in a  
tired way. "I'd better be getting back home now." she said  
to Ukyo who was just turning from the phone. "Dad's probably  
going crazy wondering what's happened to me.." She stood and  
stretched, hearing her back pop in a couple places. Crying  
all of her pent up frustrations had really taken it out of  
her and right now, all she wanted was a nice, long nap.  
She'd need to be at full strength if she was going to keep  
Shampoo AND Kodachi in line that night.

Ukyo gave her another smile and a quick hug. "I understand  
sugar. See you later, kay"

Akane smiled and hugged back. "Yeah, tonight." she nodded,  
then headed out the door and back to the Dojo.

To Be Continued...


	2. WR2: The Sleepover

Author Notes: Thank you everyone that read the first chapter and commented. I had way more readers than I expected. Please enjoy the next chapter, this is where the fun starts. :)

Last time: Akane and Ukyo decide they're tired of the whole  
competition of the fiancées. They decide to get all the  
fiancées together at Ucchans to talk things over.. Will it  
end in a blood bath? Read on to find out.

"WITHOUT RANMA" Part Two  
By Shikoku and Steel

Akane looked over at the clock that sat on her desk. 7:48 pm  
She nodded to herself and continued rolling up her sleeping  
bag. So far she'd managed to keep Ranma from suspecting  
anything. He'd been too busy fighting Mousse, Ryoga AND Kuno  
to notice anything was up. If only her luck would hold out  
so she could sneak away without him catching her.

She shoved the sleeping bag into her backpack and closed it  
tight. Standing, Akane slung the pack over her shoulder and  
opened the window behind the desk. She climbed out the  
window and onto the roof where she found the person she  
LEAST wanted to see.

Ranma blinked when he saw her come up on the roof with him.  
He had only been sitting here thinking a bit about his day  
and the fights he had went through. He definitely hadn't  
been expecting Akane. "Akane?" He noticed her bag. "Where  
are you going?"

Akane swallowed. "Oh, just going over to a friend's house."  
she answered casually. Inside she was far more nervous than  
she appeared to be. She hoped she could get away without  
making him suspicious.

"Through your window?" Ranma asked. He wasn't suspicious  
yet, just confused.

"Uh.. yeah. I was.. um, practicing sneaking in and out of  
places." Akane lied. "You know, like Ninja do." She REALLY  
hoped he'd buy her pathetic excuse.

Ranma blinked, then shrugged. "Gee Akane, is your martial  
arts skills THAT bad that ya even havta practice going  
through a window?" He shook his head, smirking arrogantly.  
"Next time just come to me, and I'LL show ya how it's done."  
He grinned proudly at how nice he was being to his fiancee.

Akane's left eyebrow twitched as she felt the familiar  
sensation of her anger flaring to life. "No thanks Ranma."  
Akane tried not to snarl through her clenched teeth. She was  
trying to control her anger; she had someplace to be and  
couldn't let herself get... sidetracked. "I can handle it on  
my own." she told him, then turned in the direction of  
Ukyo's restaurant and hopped to the ground.

Ranma watched her leave. He wore a contemplative look on his  
face, which was kind of unusual for Ranma, contemplating  
that is. "Geesh.. she looked like she was going to hit me..  
but didn't.." This was not like his fiancee. He wondered  
what could have caused her to hold her temper like that...

Hopping off the roof, Ranma began to follow her to find out.

Akane quickly made her way to Ukyo's restaurant, unaware  
that she was being followed. She knocked on the door and was  
let in by the young chef.

"Anyone here yet?" she asked Ukyo, pulling her pack off her  
back.

"Ooooh, yeah.. " Ukyo answered, "And they are ticked.."

The okonomiyaki chef led Akane to the corner of the dining  
room, where all the tables had been cleared out sleeping  
bags in their place. Sitting cross-legged on two sleeping  
bags glaring at each other silently were Shampoo and  
Kodachi. A light blue battle aura encircled both of them in  
a familiar manner.

"Uh, hi.." Akane hesitantly greeted them.

Both girls turned as one and stared at her for a sec. Akane  
was just starting to squirm a bit, when they both muttered a  
greeting.

Ohhhh yeah, THIS is gunna go over well. Akane thought  
sarcastically. She threw a 'this was YOUR idea' look at  
Ukyo, then started pulling her sleeping bag out of her pack  
to roll out on the floor..

Ukyo shrugged helplessly, but she too settled on the floor,  
next to Kodachi. She took a second to look at her two ticked  
off guests and the only skeptical one. She had no idea where  
to begin. "Uhmmmmmm.." she started, but her guests beat her  
to the punch.

"What you want talking, Spatula-Girl?" the beautiful  
purple-haired Amazon asked. "You and Tomboy giving up on  
Ranma?" By the look on her face, it was obvious she thought  
that was too good to be true.

"Yes, Shampoo, I am." Akane answered before the chef could  
say anything. "Ranma has made it abundantly clear that he  
not only doesn't love me, but he can't even STAND me and I  
refuse to marry someone who doesn't love me. The three of  
you can have him, I've had it with this nonsense."

All three of them, even Ukyo gaped at her after that  
announcement. None of them were sure how to respond to that,  
not even sure whether to celebrate or to remain suspicious.  
Akane was REALLY giving up on Ranma? Could ANYONE even DO  
that?

Kodachi finally broke the silence by laughing her head off.  
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOHO!"

"O...kay..." said Ukyo, blinking at Kodachi's reaction.

Shampoo leaned over and put her hand to Akane's forehead.  
"You feeling ok, Akane?" she asked. "Hmmm.. no have fever,  
you really serious?"

Akane batted the amazon's hand away from her head and  
nodded. "I AM serious, Shampoo. Dead serious."

"You know, I really think she is.." Ukyo quietly backed  
Akane up. "And I'm thinking of giving up on Ranchan, too."  
she added.

(Outside, sitting on top of a garbage can and a wooden crate,  
Ranma was suffering from a BAD case of jawdrop as he spied  
on the girls through a window from the side alley. Not to  
mention the painful feeling of his ego shattering..)

Back inside, everyone was now gaping at Ukyo, even Akane.  
Kodachi started laughing louder.

"Hiya!" Shampoo exclaimed, quickly looking from Ukyo to  
Akane and back. "What kind of disease you got? You can no be  
serious!"

Ukyo nodded. "I really am. I mean, Akane's right. The four  
of us chasing after Ranma is just stupid. I mean, he doesn't  
seem to WANT to choose which of us to marry, and he doesn't  
show any sign of ending this any time soon. Heck, it  
wouldn't surprise me if he ENJOYS it. I for one, am tired of  
sucking up to him just so he could choose me over you guys.  
It's just pointless." With that she slumped down with her  
arms crossed over her chest. "I'm not wasting any more of my  
life waiting on that baka."

Shampoo looked close to fainting. Kodachi had fallen over  
from laughing her head off. Akane put a hand on Ukyo's  
shoulder and smiled in a reassuring manner.

Ukyo looked at Akane and smiled, grateful for her support.

Shampoo however was still trying to make sense out of  
everything. "So you call us here to tell us, you no want  
Ranma no more?"

Ukyo shrugged and nodded. "Pretty much, though we also  
thought you two could stop chasing him too." This was the  
hard part..

Kodachi scoffed. (She'd finally stopped laughing.) "I shall  
NEVER give up on my Ranma-Darling!" she declared.

(In the alley you could practically HEAR Ranma's ego  
swelling..It was quite a relief compared to the painful  
stabs to his ego had been experiencing before. Even if it  
WAS Kodachi that was saying it. He shivered and kept  
listening..)

Shampoo looked suspicious again. "This your plan? Say you  
give up Ranma, then make us give up Ranma, so you can chase  
Ranma again with no competition, no?"

"Actually no." said Akane. "I've had it with that hentai  
baka. I'm tired of him always calling me names and making  
fun of me. You guys can HAVE him, I'm through with him for  
good!"

Shampoo nodded, seeming to accept that. She had always  
thought that Akane hadn't liked Ranma, so really this wasn't  
too much of a surprise. But Ukyo on the other hand...

The brunette shook her head. "Part of me will always love  
Ranma. I mean, he's been my best friend since I was five,  
but I'm tired of being the aggressive one. If he wants to  
marry me, HE can do the chasing for a while. As for now, I  
think I'm gonna get back to doing what's important to me and  
stop wasting my time on him. I mean, I can make Ucchans SO  
much better if I wasn't always chasing after Ranma and  
competing with you guys.." She took on almost a dreamy look  
as she thought of all the improvements she was planning on  
making..

She thought about how if she stopped giving free food to  
Ranma (a.k.a. the Black Hole) she could save up the money  
she'd been wasting to hopefully buy a bigger building and  
maybe even some full time staff!

Shampoo meanwhile, looked like she had been punched in the  
side when Ukyo started talking about better things.. She  
realized with a guilty sigh that it really HAD been a long  
time since she found time to hold a decent practice  
session.. Her martial arts skills had been suffering a bit  
since coming to Japan..

The purple haired beauty took a moment to think back on her  
life in the village before she'd met Ranma. One of the  
things the elders had drilled into her at an early age had  
been that NOTHING should come between a warrior and her  
training. Especially not a MAN. She wondered when she'd  
forgotten that..

"Shampoo.. think you may be.. right.." she finally said in a  
quiet voice.

"SAY WHAT?" the other three girls cried in shock.

(Outside, Ranma fell off of the wooden box he'd been sitting  
on. Not Shampoo, too!)

Shampoo sighed. "You right. Shampoo can do much much more  
better things than chase Ranma... but Shampoo NEED Ranma to  
have strong children for future of amazon village." She  
raised her chin stubbornly.

Ukyo sighed. "But Ranma's NOT the strongest guy out there.."

(Back outside, Ranma fell off the box again after he had  
climbed back on it. Now they were insulting his fighting  
skills?)

"It's true." Akane agreed. "There're a lot of guys out there  
who're WAY stronger than Ranma. Saffron and Kirin come  
readily to mind. The only reason Ranma beat them is because  
of a fluke, not because he's stronger. He caught them off  
guard, nothing more. If he hadn't caused the palace to get  
flooded he NEVER would've beaten Kirin. If they fought  
again, I'm sure Kirin would win." Having seen all of Ranma's  
fights in person, Akane was quite knowledgeable in who could  
and couldn't beat Ranma.

"And then there's Toma." Akane continued. "He and Ranma  
didn't even really have an actual fight. They knocked blows  
a couple times, then Toma was thrown from the coal car. That  
was hardly what I'd consider a decisive battle." She shifted  
her sitting position. "Come to think of it, MOST of Ranma's  
battles have been rather anti-climatic and rather boring  
when you get right down to it.."

Shampoo still looked a bit skeptical, but seemed to be  
really thinking about this.

"He's beatable, Shampoo." Akane said, quietly. "I've done  
it, Ukyo's done it, and even you've done it. All four of us has  
when we were mad enough. Ranma can't beat us that way. His  
greatest weakness is his fear of women. He refuses to fight  
any of us, so when we ARE seriously ready to kill him, he  
can't defend himself. If you drag him to a village of women  
warriors expecting him to be the best, you're sadly  
mistaken. Ranma's too arrogant to submit to any of us, and  
he pays for it by our anger. I'd say at heart he's deeply  
afraid of us."

Surprisingly, Kodachi had stayed silent through all of this.  
Not surprisingly however, was that she was working on a slow  
(make that quick) boil of anger that was going to explode..  
and soon. Her anger was also evident on her face which was a  
REAL bright red..

Shampoo meanwhile, sat quietly listening to everything that  
Akane and Ukyo told her. Inside however she was fighting a  
battle with herself. Half of her (the half that was Chinese  
amazon, Cologne's heir) was shouting about all this  
'blasphemy' she was hearing and urging her to kill them both.  
However, the other side of her, which was just an ordinary  
girl, knew exactly what she wanted and was willing to take  
this opportunity to fight for it for once.

A few seconds passed, but for Shampoo it seemed like much  
longer. Finally she visibly relaxed and wore the expression  
of someone that had made up her mind.

"Shampoo no want Ranma anymore." She said in a relaxed  
voice. It caught the other girl's attention and even  
distracted Kodachi for a second.

(Ranma fell off his crate again.)

"You don't?" Ukyo said, a bit surprised that their arguments  
had worked, but not quite yet believing. "Then what DO you  
want?"

In answer to Ukyo's question, Shampoo leaned forward towards  
Akane. Gently grabbing her face with both hands, Shampoo  
kissed the youngest Tendo daughter on the lips. And it was  
most definitely NOT the kiss of death..

Akane's eyes got REAL big as she watched Shampoo reaching  
for her face. In the eight seconds it took for their lips to  
make contact, her brain had turned from perfect working  
order into utter chaos. Only one thought circled clear  
through her mind: She didn't know whether to scream or  
faint. What she actually did however, surprised EVERYONE,  
especially herself! She kissed back.

Kodachi fainted. That is, after she made a few gagging  
noises and almost had a heart attack.

Ukyo's eyes grew real big, and her mouth fell open in shock.  
All she could do was stare as Shampoo kissed Akane.

(If Ranma had been on his crate he would have fallen off  
AGAIN, but he had already torn down the street, fleeing from  
an alley cat.. Good timing, ne?)

Several LONG seconds passed, which seemed like forever to  
everyone (except Kodachi who was still unconscious) before  
Shampoo and Akane finally parted. Both were panting slightly  
from lack of oxygen..

The minute she got out the trance-like state she had been  
in, Shampoo started blushing really badly. "Shampoo sorry."  
She said, meekly. She released Akane's face, folding her  
hands into her lap and staring down at them, embarrassed-like.

Akane blinked, several times, and inhaled deeply. That  
was.. an interesting experience.. She'd never thought about  
kissing a girl before.. It was odd how she wasn't repulsed  
by it..

Ukyo picked her jaw up off the floor. She moved her mouth a  
few times before sound came out. "Woah..."

Akane nodded. "Woah." she agreed, blushing.

The brunette turned toward Shampoo. "Uhm..." No other ways to  
ask but to just come out with it, she mused. "What was that  
for?" She was more curious than anything.

Shampoo managed to blush even more. She mumbled something  
that wasn't quite audible.

"What was that?" Ukyo asked, straining to hear.

"Shampoo always liked Akane, okay?" Shampoo snapped back,  
not having wanted to repeat herself. There. Her biggest  
secret was finally out.

Akane blinked again. "Really?" she asked, shocked.

Almost ashamed, Shampoo nodded.

"Wow.." Ukyo said. This had certainly been the last thing  
that she had expected from Shampoo.

Shampoo hesitated, but then added. "Is more.."

Ukyo and Akane were almost afraid to ask, but Shampoo looked  
directly at Ukyo. "Shampoo like you, too."

"You're... you're kidding!" Ukyo said in shock.

Glumly, Shampoo nodded.

Akane was just staring, dumbfounded..

The brunette sat where she was, thinking. She glanced at  
Akane, the image of Shampoo kissing the dark haired girl  
still fresh in her mind. She shrugged suddenly and leaning  
over, took Shampoo's face in her hands and kissed the  
amazon.

It was almost a mirror image of the scene before. At first  
Shampoo could only stare in wide-eyed disbelief as Ukyo  
moved towards her in slow motion. She felt the blood in her  
body start to pound, only to turn into an electric jolt when  
Ukyo's lips met hers.

Shampoo closed her eyes and kissed back as her arms found  
themselves circling Ukyo's waist.

Though she may have dressed and passed herself off as male,  
Ukyo had never dreamed she'd ever kiss a girl, let alone  
actually enjoy it. The kiss between her and Shampoo lasted  
quite a bit longer than the one the amazon and Akane had  
shared.

Of course, that's when Kodachi regained consciousness. And  
what did she see? Ukyo kissing Shampoo as her arms slid back  
from the purple haired girl's face to wrap around the  
slender, strong shoulders.

A number of emotions and thoughts crossed through Kodachi's  
mind.. First she was shocked to be seeing this..then she  
thought she was going to faint again.. then she felt her  
stomach lurch, and she KNEW she was going to throw up, and  
Kodachi's revulsion filled her with anger. "You.. you..  
HENTAIS!" She stammered before finally screeching the last  
word.

Akane blinked. She'd been so busy staring at Ukyo and  
Shampoo that she'd forgotten the other girl was there.  
"Huh?" she said in an intelligent manner. Her eyes kept  
flicking back to the pair that was still kissing in a  
distracted manner.

Ukyo ignored Kodachi completely, being far too engrossed in  
more important things than a yelling, narrow-minded nit-wit.  
She pulled Shampoo closer and turned her head a bit to the  
side to increase the contact..

As for the amazon, she was too caught up in Ukyo's kiss to  
really notice (or care for that matter) what was going on  
around her. She too, didn't pay Kodachi the slightest bit of  
attention, but instead moved with Ukyo to intensify the  
kiss.

But Kodachi was not to be ignored. (At least that was her  
opinion). She wasn't done shrieking her mind yet. "How dare  
you! You've taken a mind that was pure as the snows of the  
first winter, and filled it with the site of your wicked,  
WICKED acts. You are DIRTY! And you've contaminated me! I  
will NEVER forgive you."

Akane was starting to fidget as she watched the two kissing  
and she was paying less and less attention to the enraged  
Kuno. "Uh... whatever..." she mumbled, not even looking at  
Kodachi. The kiss Ukyo and Shampoo were sharing was  
effecting her WAY more than she'd thought it would, and that  
WASN'T a bad thing..

Shampoo and Ukyo meanwhile, managed to make the kiss even  
MORE intense.

Kodachi's stomach finally got the better of her, and she had  
to rush to Ukyo's bathroom, where she started losing her  
lunch.. several times.

The other three didn't notice at all. Two of them were far  
too gone in their mega-kissing and the other was completely  
absorbed in watching. The whole world could've fallen out  
from under them and they wouldn't have noticed. They seemed  
too wrapped up in their own universe and the rest of humanity  
no longer existed.

They didn't even notice when Kodachi came out of the  
bathroom, ranted at them some more, then left.

The world didn't start again, until finally, after what  
seemed like forever, Shampoo and Ukyo parted lips. (They had  
finally run out of air.) In silence, the three girls sat  
there panting, or at least Ukyo and Shampoo did, but ALL of  
them looked like they had just stuck their fingers in a  
light socket.

Ukyo finally broke the silence summing up everything with  
one word. "wow.."

Shampoo nodded sagely. "Hiya..." she added.

"Oh yeah.." Akane added, speaking of both their experience  
and her own.

Silence reigned again before Ukyo could ask her own  
question. "How long..?" she asked Shampoo. "I mean, thought  
like this?" she blushed, clarifying herself.

"Shampoo always thought like this," the purple beauty  
shrugged.

Akane blinked. "Really? Wow.." Ukyo nodded in agreement.

"Why so surprised?" Shampoo asked, slightly confused.

"Well.." Akane started, slightly embarrassed. "It's just  
that I've.. um.. never thought of girls as... well.. uhm..  
kissable..." Major blushing going on here. Her head looked  
like a tomato.

"Yeah.." Ukyo nodded, also blushing a deep red.

Shampoo didn't seem to notice their embarrassment. "Well,  
Shampoo never thought kissing boys much good. Is more work  
so amazon tribe no die out. Kissing girls much, MUCH  
better."

Since Akane couldn't possibly get any redder or more  
embarrassed, she thought about that statement. "Well.. come  
to think of it.. I've.. um.. never actually kissed a guy..."  
That one time while Ranma was under the Cat-Fist didn't  
count, because one: he didn't even remember it, and two: it  
was barely a peck. The one with Shampoo was a WHOLE lot more  
than that. She would've blushed if she could have.

Ukyo nodded, also looking embarrassed. "Yeah, uh, neither  
have I actually.." She wondered if kissing Ranma would be  
anywhere near as good as kissing Shampoo had been..

"Shampoo kiss both boy-type AND girl-type Ranma, but prefer  
Girl Ranma."

That would explain why she never seems to care what form  
Ranma is in when she glomps him. Akane mentally noted.

The brunette suddenly took on a curious expression. "Uhm..  
Does your great-grandmother about this?" she asked, making a  
gesture with one hand that signified she was talking about  
Shampoo liking kissing girls.

Shampoo nodded. "Oh, yes, Great-Grandmother know."

"Uh, does she..ur.. mind?" Ukyo couldn't believe she was  
talking about this.

Shampoo looked confused. "Why she mind? Is very common in  
village only few amazons prefer Man to Woman."

Akane's jaw hit the ground. "You're kidding!" That was..  
quite a concept..

Ukyo looked surprised, too. She never would have guessed  
this.

"Amazons believe females better than males, why so surprised  
that they want to make life mate with gender they find much  
better?"

"You have a point.." Akane conceded.

"Yeah.." Ukyo agreed, wondering how on earth this COULD make  
so much sense. "So what's with Ranma and Mousse?" she asked,  
bringing up the two men in Shampoo's life.

Shampoo snorted, crossing her arms. "Shampoo just chase  
Ranma for future of Village. Need strong children, so need  
strong man. Plus.. Shampoo like girl-type." she shrugged.  
"Mousse just stupid duck."

"Does Mousse, uh, know..?" Ukyo still couldn't say it.

Shampoo sighed. "He know. Is why he have long hair and wear  
robe like dress. He hope if act feminine he win Shampoo  
over, but Shampoo know underneath he just stupid male.  
Shampoo try tell Mousse that she no like him, and no CAN  
like him, but he too stubborn." She shook her head. "He  
still hope he make Shampoo like boys."

Akane nodded, absorbing this information. A part of her  
mind stepped back from this scene and thought about it. It  
definitely was NOT what she'd been expecting to happen when  
she'd pictured it earlier that day. For one thing, there'd  
been a lot less violence. She really hadn't been expecting  
to actually sit down and TALK. The image she'd had in her  
mind had her fighting for her life, which she was most  
certainly NOT doing..

Ukyo meanwhile, was absorbing this information as well,  
though in her case, she was thinking more about what Shampoo  
had been saying. Who would have guessed things would turn  
out this way? Ukyo hadn't the slightest idea on what to do  
about it.

Shampoo however, was just quietly waiting to see what Akane  
and Ukyo would do with her.

"Now what...?" Akane muttered softly to herself. She  
glanced sidelong at Ukyo and suddenly the image of the  
brunette and Shampoo kissing flashed through her mind. She  
blushed and looked at her hands that were clasped in her  
lap.

Ukyo sighed.. "Well, I guess there IS one thing TO do.."  
she said slowly, as if she wasn't sure if the two other  
girls would like what she was about to say.

"What?" They both looked at Ukyo expectantly.

"Well, everything that's happened tonight got me thinking..  
I have to find out something.." She hesitated, blushing a  
bit again. "Oh what the hell, I'll just do it!"

And before she knew what was happening, Akane found herself  
once again being kissed by a girl, but this time it was by  
Ukyo..

"MMmph!" Akane said in shock, but it was more from the  
electric jolting sensation that shot through her body than  
from surprise of being kissed. She readily kissed back. Her  
arms quickly went around Ukyo's neck, pulling the brunette  
close as her eyes went shut. She remembered how good Ukyo's  
kiss with Shampoo had looked and she wanted that.

Shampoo looked on, dumbfounded. She didn't know whether to  
be amused or jealous.

Ukyo, meanwhile was enjoying kissing Akane. Ukyo's own eyes  
had shut and one arm was around Akane's waist while the  
other circled Akane's shoulders and was playing with her  
short bluish-black hair. She rumbled her pleasure as Akane's  
grip on her tightened, and her own hold on Akane tightened  
somewhat.

In her mind, she came to the conclusion that she liked  
this.. REALLY liked this.. And not just kissing Akane,  
either, she had as much pleasure out of kissing Shampoo. The  
thought made her giddy, and she didn't know if she was going  
to burst out laughing or throw up. All she knew was that  
life for her would never be what they call 'normal' again.

Some small part of Akane's mind was jumping around screaming  
at her that what she was doing  
was just INSANE! She wasn't this way! She shouldn't be  
kissing a girl! And she REALLY shouldn't be ENJOYING it!  
Another part of her mind popped up and made the argument  
that kissing Ukyo COULDN'T be wrong cuz it felt just so darn  
RIGHT. And while the two parts bantered back and forth,  
Akane's conscious mind ignored EVERYTHING in her mind except  
one thought. This was GOOD.

Shampoo was feeling the opposite feelings of Ukyo and Akane.  
Instead of feeling weighted down or confused, for the first  
time since coming to Japan, Shampoo finally felt at ease  
with herself. She was so glad she finally told someone the  
truth about herself and it was even better that neither of  
them despised her for it. Shampoo felt the first glimpse of  
hope that maybe, just maybe, she would finally have some  
friends in Nerima.. and she was happy.

Shampoo would worry about the problems that would be the  
result of her confession later..

TO BE CONTINUED...


	3. WR3: Transition Period

Last time: Instead of ending in a 'blood bath', the fiancées  
managed to reach an agreement about giving up on Ranma..  
with unexpected results. Will they regret what they've done  
in the morning? Will life in Nerema ever be the same? Read on  
to find out..

"WITHOUT RANMA" Part Three  
By Shikoku and Steel

Akane awoke slowly the next morning. She blinked in  
brightness of the early morning sunlight that streamed in  
through the windows of Ukyo's restaurant. She stretched,  
feeling deliciously languorous and sated; a smile like a cat  
that'd just eaten a big fat canary spread across her lovely  
face. She moved her arms out to either side in her stretch  
and her knuckles brushed over warm flesh.

She blinked. What the heck was that? She pulled back a  
corner of a sleeping bag to reveal Ukyo's sleeping form  
laying face up. Akane blinked again. She pulled back the  
sleeping bag a little more and to her shock, found the  
brunette was completely naked!

Clamping a hand over her mouth to cover her gasp and to keep  
from screaming in surprise, Akane suddenly remembered  
EVERYTHING that had happened the night before. The talking,  
the kissing, the talking some more, the kissing some more,  
the hugging, the touching, and the- She blushed profusely.  
Looking down, she realized that she too, was naked.

Ukyo shivered in the cold she felt at being uncovered,  
mumbled about being cold, then snuggled up to Akane's side,  
her arm wrapping itself about the short haired girl's waist  
in familiar manner, as thought she'd done it before.

Akane swallowed. She had no idea WHAT to think. Dozens of  
things were swirling around in her mind and it was nearly  
impossible for her to sort through them all. That and the  
fact that she could feel Ukyo's warm breath across her  
collar bone was incredibly distracting...

"Morning!" a cheerful voice greeted her. Akane looked up to  
see that Shampoo had entered from the kitchen. The  
dark-haired girl noticed the tray of breakfast that the  
amazon carried, before realizing that Shampoo also wasn't  
wearing anything. Shampoo didn't seem to mind her nakedness  
at all as she set the tray down on one of Ukyo's tables and  
grinned at the shocked girl's stare. "Is good night, yes?"  
Shampoo asked.

Akane blushed heavily, and to her chagrin, found herself  
nodding.

"Come. Eat. Regain strength." Shampoo said, beckoning Akane  
to the table. "Will need it for later." Her grin caused  
Akane's blush to deepen.

The dark haired girl extracted herself from Ukyo and wrapped  
one of sleeping blankets about her slender frame. She walked  
over to the table and inspected breakfast. Once she was  
close enough, Shampoo pulled the sleeping bag away and  
tossed it back to where they'd been sleeping. "It too late  
for that Akane." she said with a sly grin, and kissed the  
girl deeply.

She has a point. a new part of Akane that had been born  
last night, whispered in her mind. Akane kissed back and was  
disappointed when this time, Shampoo kept it short.

The amazon smiled at the other girl's obvious  
disappointment. She laughed. "Hiya, Shampoo always thought  
Akane be little dynamo in bed, but out of bed too?" She gave  
the girl a wink.

Akane blushed again. This openness was a new thing for her  
and it'd probably be a long while before she stopped  
blushing. She had to admit however, that she was enjoying  
herself. She hadn't felt quite so.. happy, and.. free...  
since Ranma first showed up on her doorstep. It was a  
feeling she didn't want to lose.

Shampoo must have been feeling it too, for ever since last  
night, she had dropped whatever hostility she had for Akane  
and Ukyo. Akane never even imagined how warm the amazon  
really was underneath her ice-cold exterior. It was almost  
like Shampoo was a whole different person, which left Akane  
wondering if Shampoo had always been this way, or if her and  
Ukyo's acceptance had changed her.

Ukyo stirred from her sleep, missing the feeling of the warm  
bodies beside her that she'd fallen asleep with. She rubbed  
her face into her pillow and opened her eyes. Realizing she  
was alone, she sat up a bit and looked around, half  
wondering if what she remembered had only been a dream. She  
spotted Akane and Shampoo standing by a table that had what  
smelled like breakfast laid out on it.

A lazy, sleepy smile crossed her face she saw that both were  
naked. Yawning, she stretched, then got up and made her way  
over to them. "MMmm, morning guys." she greeted, slinging  
her arms casually about Akane. Her chin rested on the girl's  
shoulder and she smiled happily.

At first Akane jumped, still not completely used to that,  
but then she relaxed at the familiarity it held as well.  
"Morning.." she finally said.

Shampoo nodded her morning as well. "Ukyo sleep good, too?"  
The purple-haired beauty smiled.

Ukyo yawned hugely and her grin held a hint of left-over  
sleepiness to it. "Yep. Slept great. Best I've had in a long  
time." she answered. And it was true, too, this had been the  
first time since she'd left her father that she hadn't spent  
completely alone. While it could be argued that Konatsu  
could be considered company, Ukyo just couldn't really  
RELATE to him. There was a certain.. closeness that just  
wasn't there. This was the first time in her life that she  
actually felt close to anybody.

Shampoo smiled. "Is good. Now eat up both of you, we have  
busy day ahead of us." By the evil smile on her face, Ukyo  
and Akane could only guess what Shampoo had in store for  
them. It made them blush.

Both girls nodded and they all sat down together at the  
table to eat the great breakfast Shampoo had so thoughtfully  
prepared.

That became the start of a weekend ritual among the three  
girls.

Time soon passed by, each day bringing about changes for  
Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo. Some of these changes were obvious,  
but others were very subtle.

They never did tell anyone about what had happened on that  
day. Nor did any of them officially renounce their  
engagement to Ranma. Still none of them spent any time  
chasing him either. They were only engaged to him by name,  
and that was merely a cover to hide who they were really  
attached to..

One of the obvious changes for Akane was that she had  
decided to change her wardrobe. She now wore a gray  
sleeveless shirt that looked like a jerkin, but was made out  
of a t-shirt like material and had a t-shirt style collar. A  
black belt gathered it at her waist. Under the overhang of  
her shirt that stuck out under her belt, was a pair of  
kung-fu pants like the ones Ranma wore, that matched her  
hair color. She had black slipper-shoes on her feet. There  
were black bracers on her forearms and under her short hair  
was a yellow headband.

When asked why the change from her family and even Ranma  
(who actually seemed to like the look) Akane had said that  
she was just tired of wearing skirts and dresses. Which in a  
way, was true..

Ukyo had also changed her wardrobe. She wore a white jersey  
t-shirt with blue sleeves that was cut at midriff and showed  
part of her abs and blue jean, cut-off shorts that hung low  
and hugged her hips. She had taken to wearing high-top  
sneakers and a blue baseball cap that she wore with her hair  
in a pony-tail out the hole in the back. However, she still  
wore her battle spat on her back..

Shampoo had the least extreme wardrobe change. She just went  
back to wearing Chinese mini-skirt dresses that showed off  
her long legs and was tight around her breasts, as if  
certain someones had told her that she had great of both..

Which they had, and she REALLY did.

Besides appearance, the three girls also spent their time  
differently than they used to.. Akane now simply ignored  
Ranma, and spent a lot of time at Ucchans, where the  
brunette helped her with her cooking (among other things)  
and at the Neko Hanten, where the amazon worked with her  
martial arts skills (among other things). Slowly but surely,  
Akane got better at both, and at, well, other things..

Ukyo gladly helped Akane with the cooking, but she quickly  
came to realize that the girl could just NOT be left alone  
for even a SECOND. Poor though her martial arts skills  
maybe, that girl was DAMN quick when came to reaching for  
the WRONG ingredients. By the third lesson Ukyo discovered  
that they ONLY way for Akane to reach for the wrong stuff,  
was to simply not have it nearby. So whenever Akane came by  
for a cooking lesson (and other things) Ukyo would have the  
WHOLE kitchen cleared of everything BUT the proper  
ingredients.

How Ukyo dealt with Akane's habits to over use (or under use  
as the case may be) ingredients, was that before they began  
cooking, she and Akane would go over the recipe and  
PREMEASURE everything into small bowls. She'd managed to  
convince Akane that that was a good idea by showing her some  
American shows where the professionals did the same thing.

And where Ranma was concerned Ukyo had just stopped actively  
pursuing him. At school she now spent all her time either  
studying or with Akane. When Ranma came over for a free  
meal, Ukyo actually made him PAY for it instead of letting  
him mooch off her. (She'd talked to Nabiki and discovered  
she'd been losing WAY too much money by letting him do  
that.) And when he groused about something Akane had done,  
Ukyo would DEFEND her to him. Something he found completely  
astonishing..

He also found it suspicious when Shampoo stopped crashing  
into the Tendo Dojo asking him for a date or sneaking into  
his bed at night. In fact, Ranma hardly saw the amazon  
anymore, unless she ran into him while on a delivery, which  
she literally did by racing her bicycle over him.

Instead of wasting her time trying to win Ranma over to  
marry her, Shampoo spent it waitressing at the Cat Cafe,  
secretly saving up her money for the future, rejecting  
Mousse each time he made an attempt to ask her out, and  
working on her martial arts. She had decided that it wasn't  
fair that her great-grandmother had taught Ranma and even  
Ryoga a few of the amazon's special techniques, but never  
had taught her, a true amazon. So Shampoo had decided to  
teach herself. She had already roughly perfected the  
Chestnut Fist, and was getting ready to start her training  
on the Breaking Point..

Meanwhile, she also spent a lot of time practicing with  
Akane, where she did something Ranma never dared to do,  
ACTUALLY SPARRED with her. Neither girls actually liked  
bashing on each other, but they knew it was essential to  
getting better.. Besides they always made up for it  
afterwards.. Sometimes even Ukyo came to a practice, then  
things got really interesting..

Shampoo also spent a lot of her extra free time at Ucchans  
where she waitressed for the brunette and attracted some  
more (male) customers. The amazon didn't ask for any money  
for her work, but she WAS paid well after work.. in various  
highly pleasant ways thought up by her favorite bosslady..

So after three months of this, Akane, Shampoo and Ukyo had  
found quite a niche for themselves. However, Ranma, though  
brain-dead as he is, (when not fighting somebody) was  
starting to wonder what was going on with his fiancées...

To Be Continued...


	4. WR4: Ranma Gets Suspicious

Last Time: A few months passed since the 'talk' and slowly  
but surely all the girls change. Did Ranma even notice? Find  
out...

"WITHOUT RANMA" Part Four  
By Shikoku and Steel

Life for Ranma had been awfully quiet lately.. At least  
where his fiancees were concerned. At first he had actually  
enjoyed the peacefulness of not having any of the girls  
fighting over him.. But then after a few weeks of this  
strange quietness he started getting real bored from nothing  
happening.. and extremely paranoid..

His memory went back to the night that had changed  
everything in his life. His fuzzy brain started churning,  
slowly at first, but soon he remembered the conversation he  
had heard that night. Could they have been serious about  
giving up on me? he thought to himself.. Sure none of them  
had actually renounced their engagement, but they weren't  
really talking to him, either.. And they had all been acting  
..funny..

Ranma decided that he needed to find out what was up. His  
ego needed it.. Nobody had been properly feeding it lately..

One morning, he found himself banging on Akane's door. He was  
determined that today he would find out what was going on.  
"Yo, Akane!" He called through the door. "Open up, we'll be  
late for school!" Even if he was gonna have to stick to  
Akane like glue..

Inside the room Akane glanced at her clock from where she  
was sitting at her desk, going over her homework. "Ranma you  
baka, we've got a half hour before we have to leave!" she  
yelled back, not bothering to get up. "We haven't even eaten  
breakfast yet!" One part of her mind was surprised the idiot  
was even up now..

"So, come on and let's go eat then." Ranma didn't let up.  
"I'm starving.. I'd even almost eat your cooking!" He  
decided it would help if he was nice to his reluctant  
fiancée if he was going to find out what was up with her.

"You're a big boy, Ranma, I'm sure you can walk downstairs to  
the table without needing to hold my hand." Akane retorted,  
irritated that he wasn't leaving her alone.

Ranma blinked. He wasn't expecting that one.. "Come on  
Akane, what's the matter?"

Akane rubbed a hand over her face. That guy was REALLY  
starting to get on her nerves. "There's nothing wrong, Ranma,  
I'm just checking my homework. Now can you PLEASE go away so  
I can finish?"

Still wearing a numb 'what's with her' expression, Ranma  
finally left her in peace. He wasn't sure what else to do,  
but he vowed to at least walk with her to school..

Sighing, Akane shook her head as she heard his light  
footsteps finally walk away from her door. "What's his  
problem? He's acting weirder than usual.."

"Forget Ranchan and come back to bed, A-chan." said Ukyo from  
the tangle of sheets on Akane's bed. The short haired  
martial artist grinned and stuffed her homework papers into  
her text book. She hadn't lied to Ranma, she HAD been going  
over her homework because of a test she had later that day,  
but what she HADN'T told him was that she'd been sitting  
there, buck naked after a night of passion with a certain  
okonomiyaki chef.

Akane happily slid back under the sheets and spent almost a  
half hour quietly giggling with Ukyo..

Needless to say, Ranma found himself walking alone to  
school. He wasn't too happy that somehow Akane got out of  
being kept an eye on yet again. So as he walked, the  
pigtailed martial artist was grumbling to himself about  
stupid tomboys and dumb windows and how could she have fit  
her gorilla-like body through one..

His grumblings were cut off as he was squashed flat by a  
certain Chinese amazon's bicycle. The purple haired beauty  
stopped and looked back apologetically. "I so sorry.. Are  
you..?" She dropped the concern when she saw who it was she  
had hit. "Oh, is just you."

Ranma quickly flipped to his feet, lest he was being watched  
by one of his 'enemies' and they thought he'd been downed,  
which he couldn't have, since it's make him 'lose face'.  
Whatever THAT meant..

Ignoring the bright red bike tread mark down the middle of  
his face, Ranma turned on that famous 'Saotome Charm' which  
usually led to more trouble than it was worth. "Oh, heya  
Shampoo." he greeted and flashed his pearly whites at her.

Shampoo didn't notice. Actually, she wasn't even LOOKING at  
him, but instead was mounting her bike to prepare to leave.  
"Oh uh, hey.." she answered distractedly.

Ranma wasn't going to let her get away so easily though. "So  
Shampoo, how's it going?" he asked her, leaning on her  
handle bars and effectively keeping her from leaving. He  
gave her a 'dashing' look.

Shampoo blinked. Boy, this was new, Ranma seemed to WANT her  
attention now.. Too bad she didn't feel like giving it to  
him anymore. Hey, he had his chance...

"Shampoo is too busy making deliveries to talk to you now,  
Ranma," Shampoo answered, feeling like she was talking to  
Mousse. She tugged on the handlebars a bit, hoping to shake  
Ranma loose. Why did it feel like he was a leech stuck to  
her skin?

Ranma seemed surprised at Shampoo's behavior. "Hey, you  
wearin' that weird Reversal Jewel again or somethin'?" Of  
course he HAD to check by shoving her chin back so he could  
inspect her neck.

That movement of course made Shampoo mad. "NO TOUCH SHAMPOO  
LIKE THAT!" she screamed as she punched him to kingdom  
come.

As Ranma's prone body flew over the horizon, Shampoo stood  
there angrily trying to catch her breath. "Men, I HATE  
them," she growled in her native tongue.

Ranma, of course, sailed all the way back to the Tendo Dojo  
and was subsequently late to school. Bucket duty was SO  
boring..

And to make matters worse, he didn't get to catch up to  
Akane until lunch. He finally found her under a tree in the  
school's yard. She was sitting with Ukyo, as Ranma  
remembered her doing all the time now.. "Hey, Akane. Hiya,  
Ucchan." he greeted them both, trying to act more cheerful  
than he felt.

Akane just glanced at him, then went back to her lunch that  
Kasumi had so thoughtfully prepared. Ukyo at least, was  
civil. "Heya, Ranchan." she greeted back, then lifted a piece  
of okonomiyaki with her chopsticks to Akane so the other  
martial artist could eat it.

Ranma looked longingly at her okonomiyaki. Sadly, during the  
scuffle with Shampoo, Ranma had lost his lunch and as usual,  
he was broke. "That looks good, Ucchan. Can I have some?" He  
gave her his best puppy dog eyes.

Ukyo glanced at him after Akane had eaten the bite. "Sorry,  
Ranchan, I don't have enough." She resisted the urge to kiss  
Akane and taste that okonomiyaki.

"Oh.." Ranma looked crestfallen.

Suddenly the sound of a cheerful "Nihao!" entered his  
ears. He looked up to see Shampoo bounce over, carrying  
boxes of Chinese take-out.

"Hey, guys," she smiled at Akane and Ukyo. "Oh, Ranma.." Her  
cheerful mood darkened a bit when she finally noticed he was  
there, too.

Akane and Ukyo grinned at Shampoo as the buxom amazon in a  
tight mini-dress sat beside them and opened her take-out  
boxes. "Hey Shampoo." they greeted as she handed them each a  
bowl of steaming ramen.

Ranma sat with and fairly drooled. "So, what're we having?"  
he asked, rubbing his hands together. "Beef top ramen, or  
maybe pork..?"

Shampoo blinked. "Shampoo only brought enough for Akane and  
Ukyo, Ranma. So sorry." she said sweetly, before digging  
into her own bowl.

Ranma looked utterly crushed at thought of not getting any  
lunch at all. He put on his best  
'I'm-starving-please-have-pity-on-me' look and turned it  
full blast on Ukyo and Shampoo.

Neither seemed to notice. They were too busy eating and  
chatting with Akane and each other. Ranma felt utterly left  
out.

Ranma was about to really pour it on and start whimpering but  
a cry of "Saotome prepare to die!" made him quickly jump  
away from the girls before he got skewered by bladed chain  
weapons.

Looking up, Ranma saw Mousse standing a little ways away  
with his hands up his sleeves. The weapons were nowhere in  
sight. The pig-tailed martial artist was about to complain  
about being attacked in the middle of lunch, when the wall  
around the school suddenly caved in and Ryoga appeared on  
the scene.

"Damn you Ranma!" he snarled, showing off those cute little  
fangs all the girls went ga-ga over.

"Oh no! Not YOU too!" Ranma groaned. He then fell into a  
ready stance, his eyes darting between the two furious young  
men.

"The vengeance of Heaven is slow but sure!" called another  
voice. Ranma whipped around and saw Kuno on the other side  
of him. He was effectively surrounded now. "Today is the day  
that I, Tatewaki Kuno, famed Blue Thunder of Furinkan High,  
(thunder crashed dramatically) shall vanquish the vile  
sorcerer Saotome and free my loves so they may shower me  
with their maidenly adulation on that who rightfully  
deserves it!"

Ranma rolled his eyes. Good grief.

The girls, who'd been sitting peacefully in the shade of a  
large tree, discreetly got up and moved FAR away.

But not TOO far away. What better opportunity for a dinner  
show than watching their fiancee get beat up..? They  
started cheering for the attackers.

And for once the attackers were actually doing well.. It  
must have been because poor Ranma was already half starved..  
So because of this fact, he was pummeled into the pavement  
and spent the rest of the school day in the nurse's office  
wrapped in bandages..

That was bad enough but Kuno managed to find time to visit  
him often and gloat about how the 'vengeance of Heaven had  
been once again victorious over Ranma's foul presence.'  
Sadly enough, no one visited him other than Kuno.

Ryoga was running all over Nerima, breaking walls in frantic  
search for Akane to declare his love to her. Mousse was  
likewise (except for the wall breaking) looking for Shampoo  
to declare HIS love for HER. And in between bouts of  
gloating, Kuno searched for Akane and the 'pigtailed-girl'.

The girls had gone into hiding at Ukyo's restaurant, after  
school was over.

And that was where they usually preferred to be.. Well, the  
upstairs apartment anyway..

But of course, Ranma didn't know that so he had a heck  
of a time finding them at first. But after looking for Akane  
at home, at the park, at school again, and after checking to  
make sure that no out of town martial artist had kidnapped  
her, again, Ranma realized that they must be at the Ucchan.  
He decided to go check, and he even borrowed money from  
Nabiki to buy some okonomiyaki, since Ukyo had this strange  
desire to make him pay for his free eats now..

Upon limping past the curtains of the front door (he still  
couldn't walk very well) he realized two things. The girls  
WERE here (well, he didn't see Akane but that was because  
she was in the back washing dishes) and that Ukyo's  
restaurant was unusually crammed with hordes of young, horny  
guys who all seemed to be staring at Shampoo. Or, at least  
at her tight dress..

He went up to Ukyo and hesitantly said, "Heya, Ucchan.."  
After the hell his day has been he was almost even prepared  
for the end of the world to happen here in Ukyo's  
restaurant.

But it wasn't the end of the world, at least not yet. Ukyo  
just looked up at him and said, cheerfully. "Hiya, Ranchan."  
She then sent Shampoo to deliver another few plates to  
another table of horny teenage boys.

Ranma didn't notice her eyeing the seat of Shampoo's dress  
as the amazon-turned-buxom-waitress bent to set down a plate  
on the far side of the table. He also didn't notice when she  
frowned at the sight of all those hormone driven, adolescent  
males getting eyefulls of Shampoo's cleavage.

"Hey Ucchan, you seen Akane around anywhere?" Ranma asked,  
gazing at the menu that was posted behind her.

She blinked. "Uh.. yeah, she's in the back washing dishes."  
Ukyo answered, jerking thumb in the direction of the  
kitchen. "Why do you ask?"

Ranma shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. "Just haven't seen  
her around that much lately."

"Yeah, she's been hanging around here." Ukyo answered,  
flipping her sizzling okonomiyaki. "I've been giving her  
some cooking lessons."

Ranma actually laughed. "And the place is still standing?"  
he asked in disbelief.

Ukyo shrugged and flipped the food onto plates. "She's not  
THAT bad, Ranma." She handed the plates to Shampoo and Ranma  
completely missed the LOOK that passed between them. He was  
too busy drooling over the fresh batter Ukyo had poured with  
her other hand.

"She's actually improving quite nicely. She just needs to be  
watched and properly.. rewarded, when she does something  
right." A secretive smile crossed her face and she glanced  
at Shampoo who grinned knowingly back. She blushed slightly  
and went back to her cooking.

Ranma looked curiously at his friend. Very weird he mused,  
but before he could ponder things further, she flipped his  
order onto a plate and set it in front of him. All thoughts  
that weren't food related flew out the window.

After Ranma ate his meal, Ukyo was delighted when he  
actually promptly paid for it instead of whining about how  
she used to let him eat for free like he usually did. She  
was glad he was actually learning.. She counted up his  
money, gave him the proper change and started gathering her  
day's profits to put in her safe for the night..

Ranma meanwhile, not in okonomiyaki nirvana anymore, only  
now noticed that he was the last customer left in the  
restaurant. Around him, Shampoo was busily cleaning up  
tables and collecting her LARGE tips.

"Hey Ucchan, what gives?" the pig-tailed martial artist  
asked, when Ukyo returned with her 'Closed' banner.

"Oh, didn't you know? I close Ucchan's a bit earlier these  
days so I can have time to go over my schoolwork with Akane  
and Shampoo."

Ranma blinked. "Since when?"

Ukyo sighed and shook her head, "Ranma, Ranma, Ranma.. we've  
only been doing this for months." She gave him a grin then  
went to put her 'Closed' banner outside and brought the  
'Open' banner inside.

Akane then walked out from the back, drying her hands on a  
dish towel. "Everything's clean, dried and put away." she  
announced, grinning. She then noticed Ranma and her grin  
dimmed slightly. "Ranma.. What're you doing here?"

"Visiting my best friend Ucchan, what does it look like I'm  
doing?" Ranma answered, getting defensive all of a sudden.

"Looks like you're going to be leaving now, sugar." Ukyo  
announced returning with her banner. "The restaurant's  
closed."

Ranma looked to her, then to Akane. He shrugged. "Why can't  
I stay?" he asked. "You're just studyin' right?"

"Is true," Shampoo nodded, joining them. "but then we have  
girl talk and paint nails and do hair. Ranma want do that  
too?" The amazon smiled at him wickedly, promising him that  
she'd do some VERY interesting things with his pigtail if  
he'd let her.

Ranma started to sweat. A (gasp gasp) MAKEOVER was the LAST  
thing he wanted. He absolutely HATED it. In EITHER form.  
Hastily he made up some lame excuse to leave and then he  
bolted out the door like a bat out of hell.

The girls grinned triumphantly at each other, then headed  
upstairs to do something that no doubt had NOTHING to do  
with school OR a makeover..

Outside Ranma made it about a block away, when a thought  
struck him. Would a makeover session really cause the girls  
to be THAT eager to get rid of him real fast? Ranma couldn't  
help but stay suspicious.. Without another thought he turned  
around and headed back to the restaurant.

When he returned, he looked through a ground floor window  
into the dining area where he'd spied on them before, but he  
found the place was now dark and empty. He sighed and looked  
around, then went down the side alley to the back. He looked  
to the second floor and saw the light in Ukyo's room was on.  
(How he knew which room was hers, he would say, is no one's  
business but his own.) So up the climbed.

He huffed and puffed a bit after perching on two garbage  
cans and several nicely placed cardboard boxes. After  
finally catching his breath, he stealthily looked through the  
window.

What he saw caused his eyes to bug out, his mouth to fall  
open and his brain to shutdown. But first:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

He then fell off his makeshift tower having fainted. Blood  
was dripping from his nose.

To be continued.


	5. WR5: Eavesdropper Discovered

Last Time: Ranma's suspicions aroused, our favorite arrogant  
pigtailed-martial artist decided to find out what was going  
on with his fiancees.. Looking through Ukyo's window, he got  
a little more than he bargained for.. 

"WITHOUT RANMA" Part Five  
By Shikoku and Steel

Before The Scream:

Ranma was finally escorted out and Ukyo locked the door  
behind him. All three girls sighed in relief at the same  
time.

"I thought that Jackass would never leave." Ukyo muttered.

Akane nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he has a real tendency to  
stick around longer than he's wanted, ne?" she said, tossing  
the dishtowel onto the now cold grill.

Shampoo nodded too. "He also seem to want to invade our  
space all of sudden." Her Japanese was still not perfect,  
but with Ukyo and Akane's help she had been improving it a  
lot. She still chose to talk in bad Japanese in public,  
though. The customers at the restaurants all thought it was  
cute.

"I think he's getting suspicious." Akane said, resting her  
hip on the grill next the dishrag. She gazed out the window  
where'd they'd last seen Ranma.

"Well, what can we do about it?" Ukyo asked. "I have no  
intention of stopping what we're doing."

"Me neither.." the other two agreed, shaking their heads.

They stood in silence for a few moments, pondering this turn  
of events. Finally Ukyo sighed. "Let's think about it  
later." she said. "I've got.. other things on my mind right  
now.." A slow grin crossed her face as she looked over the  
other two girls.

She was met with two grins back.

"Shall we?" Shampoo asked.

Ukyo kept grinning. "Oh yeah." she answered then turned and  
headed for the back, Shampoo and Akane following close  
behind. But before going upstairs, Ukyo stopped in the  
kitchen to pick up a bottle of chocolate syrup, a can of  
'Ready Whip' and a bowl of fruit. It WAS dinner time  
afterall.. She then joined the other two on the stairs and  
they went to her room.

In the events that followed, none of the girls noticed that  
the only window in the room was slightly opened and the  
white and green striped curtains decorating it were parted a  
bit. No doubt Ukyo had opened it the night before to let in  
a breeze for it was very hot even at night.

Well why think about it, when there was so many better  
things to dwell on?

Maybe the three months of playing around without getting  
caught had made them cocky..

Oh well, needless to say, a few minutes after entering the  
room, it became very quiet, except for the occasional bit of  
laughing and sometimes even a moan or an 'mmmmm' of  
pleasure.. If one listened closer, one might even be able to  
hear Ukyo's bed squeaking under pressure, as well as the  
sound of a few lips coming together...

At one point the view was really good through the window,  
one could see the clothes start flying off.. Akane's new  
tunic.. Ukyo's pants.. Shampoo's dress.. Soon it was  
followed by the second layer of clothing.. Akane's bra and  
panties.. (she never did give up the cute ones that Ranma  
had made fun of, he never had any fashion sense anyway)  
Ukyo's chest bindings..(she of course, sort of considered  
herself the masculine member of the trio, so she still  
dressed that way occasionally, besides, it was fun  
unwrapping her like a Christmas present) and her panties as  
well.. Shampoo of course, didn't contribute anymore for it  
was already a well known fact that amazons don't wear  
underwear. At least Shampoo didn't..

Anyway, Ukyo's floor and even some furniture were soon  
covered with their clothing.. but I doubt they'd mind  
cleaning up afterwards..

If Happosai saw this, he'd have a field day then he could  
die a happy man..

After the rain of clothes, the lips smacking sounds and the  
moaning started up again.. Soon a new sound entered.. the  
shaking of a whipped cream can and after that.. Well, let's  
just not go there...

Afterall, we should give the girls a little privacy..

Unfortunately, the girls took their privacy too much for  
granted, so they never even saw it coming..

The ear-shattering scream was enough to get even their  
attention, and in flash, the three were to Ukyo's window  
(the sheet wrapped around them all) where they discovered an  
unconscious Ranma on the ground below, blood coming from his  
nose.

Akane sighed. "Looks like we've been discovered.." she said  
with dismay.

The others nodded dumbly..

All of a sudden they were all feeling a bit queasy at the  
implications of this and what it might mean for the future..

"Maybe he have concussion and forget.." Shampoo suggested,  
grasping at straws.

"Really think we can be that lucky?" Akane asked, dryly.

Shampoo sighed. "No.."

Ukyo glanced out the window at Ranma, then back at the other  
girls. "Well, should we go get him, or.." She looked  
meaningfully at the sheet. "..leave him there?" She drew a  
finger over Akane's shoulder, removing some whipped cream.  
She licked off the finger.

Akane stared transfixed at Ukyo's finger as the brunette  
licked the whipped cream off.. "He'll be okay for now..  
S'not like he'll be going anywhere.."

Shampoo nodded, gently pushing the other two girls back on  
Ukyo's bed. "We have unfinished buisness.." she declared,  
with a sly grin on her face.

The other two grinned back and went willingly where Shampoo  
pushed them. Soon they had picked up where they'd left off,  
almost as if they'd never been interrupted at all.

Down on the ground, an alley cat curled up on Ranma's chest  
and went to sleep.

It was a few hours later when the girls remembered Ranma...

"Hey.. we forgot about Ranma!" Akane suddenly exclaimed from  
the tangle of sheets on the bed.

Ukyo moved an arm out of her way and looked at her clock.  
"Is he even still there?" she asked. They'd been.. busy, for  
quite awhile.

Shampoo, who was closest to the window, reluctantly rolled  
out of bed. "I check." She then padded naked across the room  
to look out the window and see. "He still there.. He no  
awake.. Maybe he dead?" she asked, almost hopefully.

It took Akane a few seconds to answer; she was staring at  
Shampoo's whip cream smeared rear. "I doubt it.." she  
finally said, trying to pull her thoughts from Chinese  
nakedness. "His skull's as hard as Ryoga is."

"Darn.." Shampoo said, sighing. Then she noticed something..  
odd. "Hey.. there's a cat sleeping on him."

That gave Ukyo an idea. "Hey, maybe we can use that.." she  
said, sitting up. Akane slid back onto the bed. Ukyo was  
just a tad bit slippery. "Maybe if we get him into the  
Cat-Fist, he'll forget anything he saw."

"Hey, I'd try anything to keep the baka in the dark for  
awhile longer.." Akane shrugged.

"How we wake Ranma, but not cat?" Shampoo asked.

Ukyo thought about this. "Well.. it's not that we need to  
keep the cat asleep, it's that we need to keep it from  
falling off Ranma. Now.. how to do that...?" She looked  
around the room for something they could use and her eyes  
fell on the cloth strips that were partially tied to her  
head board. "Hey, we could tie the cat to him!" she  
exclaimed, grinning.

Akane and Shampoo just grinned, evil-like.. This was going  
to be fun...

To Be Continued...

C&C Loved and Played With. :-)

Seriously, I've never had so many interesting reviews before.

(Go read Steels and my other stuff, the reviews were usually happy, as in "your story is so funny" types)

And I've certainly never been told to not quit my day job before. (LOL)

Okay, here's the deal with this story: It's basically a revenge fic against Ranma. So, yes, we're deliberately picking on him. So if you really love Ranma, I'd advise you to stop reading this story because it's only going to get worse.

Why are we picking on him?

Basically we can't stand how he strung the fiancees (Ukyo and Shampoo) along for the whole series without ever intending to be with any of them, and how he was never very nice to Akane. Granted, he probably didn't intend to do either on purpose, but that's not the point. They were still strung along and Akane was still verbally abused for the whole series. (For sake of argument, we'll say this fanfics is more anime based.)

We also can't stand fanfics that puff up Ranma into a super god and make all the female characters his harem that are willing to let him degrade them, so this is basically our response to stories like that.

So, in answer to a lot of your comments: yes, this story is definitely not based on canon, yes, the characters are out of character (but really how often are characters IN character in fanfiction, anyway? They're not our characters, so only Rumiko Takahashi would know how they would really act in any given situation) and no, you're not supposed to be taking us seriously. : - )

But go ahead and send in the comments. They're more thought provoking than "Whee! Write more!"

Smoochies,

Shikoku

And here's a response from Steel, who's not near as nice as me:

To all reviewers: #1 IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE STORY, S-T-O-P READING

IT! #2 YES, as previously stated, Ranma gets bashed, if you don't

like it, DON'T READ IT! #3 This is FICTION! It's not MEANT to follow

the canon! It was never stated that it WAS canon! #4 Where did you

come up with the whole 'Ranma's a fighting genius'? WHEN in the

story was it ever said that Ranma's a bad fighter? And YES, Ranma HAS

lost MANY fights, YOU should reread the manga.

And just because Genma was an ass in raising Ranma doesn't give Ranma

the excuse to be a JERK to Akane and string along the girls. You all

keep saying that Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo and stringing along Ranma,

well guess what! That's exactly what HE did to THEM! It's PAYBACK!

Pure and simple.

And if you don't like it, THEN STOP READING IT!

:Shikoku drags Steel off to bed to cheer her up:


	6. WR6: Retaliation

Last Time: What Ranma saw..  
This Time: What Ranma's gonna do about it...

"WITHOUT RANMA" Part Six  
By Shikoku and Steel

After the hot water finally reached the top of the Tendo's  
bathtub, Ranma shut it off. He stared at the water,  
longingly, knowing that it was REALLY going to hurt when he  
tried to get in. But the water was tempting enough, so Ranma  
dropped the towel covering his manly aspects, but couldn't  
quite cover the scratches and bruises and welts and other  
pretty painful things that covered his body and stepped into  
the tub.

Hissing to himself as the hot water sloshed into his  
injuries, Ranma thought back on the events that had brought  
to where he was at this moment in time..

Cue Funky Flashback Effects

On the ground below Ukyo's window, Ranma lay, looking almost  
dead. He groaned to himself in pain, before opening one eye.  
What he saw, was a blurry fuzzball..

It took him a couple seconds to realize that it was a cat.  
Once he had, however, all thoughts vanished and the only  
thing in his head was pure, unadulterated FEAR. And what did he

do about it?

He screamed like a girl, started running around in little  
circles and almost fell into a dumpster.

But something was different this time. When he got up the  
cat stayed with him instead of slipping off his chest. If  
his brain had been working he would have known that the cat  
was somehow tied to him.. instead, all he knew was that he  
couldn't shake the cat off..

The cat wasn't too happy about this either. The tom let this  
be known by scratching and clawing at Ranma which only made  
Ranma more frantic..

And he screamed more and ran around in more circles.

If he hadn't been half crazed with fear, he would've  
realized that three certain young women were laughing their  
guts out at him.

But nope, Ranma was already gone.. and he started  
merowing...

"Duck and cover!" Akane yelled, tackling both Shampoo and  
Ukyo to the ground.. and she stayed on top of them.. to  
protect them, yeah, that's it...

And if you believe that, we have a tower in downtown Tokyo  
to sell you..

Anyway, Ranma went down on all fours, merowing and hissing.  
The ally cat took a flying lesson. He turned toward where  
the girls were laying with his pig-tail sticking straight  
out. "Rrrrrrooooowwwwwrrr!" he stated.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty.." Akane called, holding out her  
hand to him..

At the sound of that voice, Ranma-cat perked up. "Merow!" he  
said happily and started scampering toward Akane.

Akane sat up and Ranma plopped into her lap, purring in  
contentment. Akane made a face. "How revolting.." she  
muttered.

"Hurry up and get it over with, A-chan.." said Ukyo, who had  
her arms crossed and didn't look happy to watch this..

"Yes, this making us too too jealous.." added Shampoo who  
also didn't seem to like this..

"Ok ok, gimme a minute. This doesn't happen instantaneously  
you know." Akane replied. She then started scratching  
Ranma's head as if he was nothing more than a common house  
cat. The purring increased in volume and he started doing  
'Happy Claws'..

The other two girls watched Ranma being pampered by Akane,  
enviously. They both wanted the cat treatment next.

Akane yawned. Gads this was boring. There were TONS of  
things she could think of that were FAR more.. Interesting.  
"Geez he's heavy.." she grumbled to no one in particular.  
"My legs are numb.."

"Didn't you use to like doing that?" Shampoo asked, out of  
curiosity.

The short haired martial artist thought about it. "I don't  
think I liked doing THIS particular thing, I think it was  
that I just liked having him near me.." she answered,  
scratching behind one of Ranma's ears.

"You did?" Ukyo asked, slightly surprised. It was hard to  
remember that she once had been madly in love with Ranma,  
too.

Akane shrugged. "Used to." she said. "Now I can barely  
remember why I even liked him.. He's nothing more than an  
obnoxious jerk now."

Ukyo and Shampoo took in a sigh of relief as one. Neither  
really wanted to lose Akane to Ranma..

Akane looked to the two of them with a slightly amused  
expression. "Don't worry guys," she said. "You have NO  
competition from Ranma what-so-ever. He had his chance and  
he blew it, I'm sticking with you guys for a long time." She  
grinned.

"Good, cause you ain't getting rid of us that easy, A-chan."  
Ukyo grinned down at her.

"Yes, friends help each other when they in trouble. We happy  
to help you A-chan," Shampoo smiled slyly at both her and  
Ukyo, giving them a hint on what her idea of 'helping' would  
be..

Akane laughed. "Yeah, I'll bet you are." she said, a rather  
hentai gleam in her eye.

And they laughed.

Ranma, still in 'cat-land' finally drifted off to sleep.  
Upon doing so, his body relaxed out of it's curled up and he  
took on a more human look. Akane noticed this. "Oh good,  
he's asleep." she said. "Now get off my lap you pervert!"  
And she punted him over the skyline. He soared like a bird  
through the air, then fell like a rock through a grove of  
trees. After which he rolled into an empty canal.

His head still swirling from the unexpected trip, he failed  
to notice he had company. As (bad) luck would have it, Ryoga  
just happened to be camped out under a near-by bridge,  
having gotten lost (of course) in his search for Akane.  
Seeing Ranma, he, naturally, attacked.

Which is how Ranma got so injured and that brings us back to  
the present.

cue funky flashforeward effects

"Stupid Ryoga.. Stupid Akane.. Stupid cat.." Ranma had now  
generated down to simple-name calling. He had had a rotten  
day and he blamed everyone else in Nerema for it, except for  
himself.

Fortunantly his day was almost over, and he DID survive..  
somehow.. but just barely.. And for some reason he had this  
image fixed in his brain, which he couldn't figure out how  
it got there, but he couldn't get rid of..

That of Akane, Ukyo, and Shampoo.. all naked and in bed  
together.. doing stuff that made Ranma want to blush, throw  
up.. and just stare at in perverted wonder.. Not necessarily  
in that order..

Shaking his head, he pushed the image to the back of his  
mind where he could ignore it and where it wouldn't 'bother'  
his body, I mean him.

Anyway, while doing that DID allow his conscious mind to  
ignore it, two deep parts of his mind that he either  
ignored, or didn't know existed, commented on the image.

"Whoooooooooo-weeeeeee! What a picture!" exclaimed the  
first part that referred to itself as 'Ace'. It drooled and  
marveled at the wonders of whip cream..

The second part of his mind whapped the first. "Hentai."  
This side called itself 'Spade'. "That picture is  
disgusting. I can't believe you could possibly find  
enjoyment out of it."

If Ace had had a leg, it would've been shaking. "The  
question is, bucko, how can you NOT get enjoyment out of it.  
Rowr!" He started panting and making wolf calls.

Spade sniffed arrogantly. "I, sir, am not amused by  
perversity of this caliber. Especially when the subject in  
question is that of all the ladies thatare supposed to be  
MY fiancées, in bed together, without me. Don't you see a  
problem with that picture?"

Ace took on a sly look. "Oooooohhhh! I get it! You want IN  
on the action!" He danced around Spade. "C'mon c'mon! ADMIT  
it! You WANT to be right smack in the middle of all those  
lovely, lithe, slick little bodies as they writhe, moan  
and.." He howled again and drooled some more.

Spade looked positively shocked at the turn this  
conversation was going. "Oh my.. I will admit nothing of the  
sort." he stated, raising his nose up in the air and trying  
to ignore Ace. "But women in a bed without a man.. is just  
not done. Think of the scandal involved if anyone were to  
find out? All I want is to restore things to their proper  
order. I'm doing it for the sake of the ladies involved."

Ace snorted. "You want in and you know it! You say you wanna  
'restore things to their proper order', in other words, you  
want our harem back!" He grinned hugely. "I KNEW you were  
like me! I knew it I knew it I knew it!" He danced around  
some more in triumph.

Ace was really ruffling Spade's feathers now. "I do NOT!" he  
shouted in all exasperation.

However Ace wasn't listening. He was too busy celebrating  
having 'converted' Spade to his side..

Spade sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration.  
Finally he couldn't take it anymore and grabbed Ace by the  
back of his shirt. "Look here, are we going to decide what  
to do about this situation, or aren't we?"

"Ack! Ok ok! Sheesh! Don't have a cow!" Ace exclaimed. He  
pulled his shirt away from Spade and smoothed it out. "What  
do you think we should do?"

"Well.." Spade started. "I haven't a clue." He deflated  
slightly at having to admit that.

"Darn.." Ace looked forlorn at that statement. Spade WAS the  
one with the brains afterall, so if HE didn't know.. well,  
then they were basically in trouble..

So Ace and Spade sat there just staring at each other in  
confusion. This of course, didn't help Ranma but of course  
by this time, he was used to it. The two parts of his  
subconscious rarely DID agree on what he should do, so Ranma  
rarely acted on one single idea, unless fighting was  
involved. That was something Ace and Spade were good at..

Unfortunately this time they were useless, so Ranma didn't  
have a clue what to do about that image in his mind.. Heck,  
he still didn't know if the image had been true or not..

So the only conclusion they came up with was to just ignore  
it for the time being.

To Be Continued...


	7. WR7: Ryoga and Mousse Get Involved

Last Time: Ranma found out his fiancee's secret.. and  
proceeds to try to forget about it, dismissing it as a dream  
in his Nekoken state.  
The question is: CAN he forget it?

"WITHOUT RANMA" Part Seven  
By Shikoku and Steel

The Tendo Dojo was surprisingly empty. Soun and Genma were  
down at a bar in town, trying to drink Happy under the table  
without much success.

Kasumi was at the market running some errands before going  
to visit ol' Doc Tofu. She'd made a batch of her special  
extra chewy-gooy, not-to-be-missed, unbelievable triple  
fudge brownies with chocolate frosting just for him. Three  
minutes after she arrived the late afternoon air was pierced  
by the blood-curdling screams of his victims.. I mean  
patients.

Nabiki was having her tennis lessons, which were, of course,  
free. Ah yes, blackmail really WAS a good thing..

Ranma, who most would believe would still be at the dojo,  
was actually not there. Nope, he was out in the city,  
searching for (surprise surprise) Ryoga of all people! And  
WHY was he looking for the resident Lost Boy? Well, let's  
just say that he was still a bit.. perturbed by the  
unscheduled beating he'd received the day before.. At least  
that was his excuse for wanting to get away from the dojo  
for awhile..

Nope, the only person who was currently at the Dojo was  
Akane. Well, that's not entirely true. There were TWO other  
people there with her, one she knew about, and one she  
didn't.

Since she was alone, as far as she knew anyway, Akane was  
taking FULL advantage of the privacy. By 'playing' with a  
certain buxom amazon in her room that is.

"Hiya!" Shampoo said coming up from under Akane's blanket to  
get some air. They'd been under the covers for quite a long  
time..

Akane laughed as her head appeared from under the covers  
near the wall at the side of the bed. She grinned at Shampoo  
who's purple head was at the foot of the bed. "You sure are  
spunky today Sham-chan." She ran a hand through her short  
hair which was sticking out in messy spikes from her sweat  
and a pair of amazon hands..

Shampoo playfully stuck her tongue out at Akane. "Aren't I  
always, A-chan?" She grinned. Her own long, purple hair had  
been nicely tousled and hand-combed by Akane's capable  
hands, and the amazon's buns and ponytails had come loose  
during one of the scuffles..

Akane laughed again. "Ain't that the truth." She grinned  
again. Suddenly her stomach rumbled. "Hey, you wanna go down  
stairs and get something to eat?" she asked. Afterall,  
they'd been exerting a lot of energy in past couple hours.

Shampoo nodded eagerly. "Sound good to me, but you always  
taste better." She grinned at Akane with a sly look in her  
eyes.

"Oh really now?" Akane asked with a laugh and a grin. She  
waggled her eyebrows and hopped out of bed, buck naked.

Shampoo followed, also in the nude, though unlike Akane,  
Shampoo's hair was long enough to cover a few parts 'Birth  
of Venus' style. "I'd say so." Shampoo grinned following  
Akane out the door.

"Well I'd say you're pretty tasty yourself." Akane gave her  
a hentai grin and suddenly glomped the purple haired beauty,  
kissing that long, amazon neck.

Shampoo ooooed, and tilted her head back to give Akane more  
access to her neck. Her hands were busy in Akane's hair,  
making it even more tousled.

Ok, we'll just stop there. Time for a scene change..

As it was mentioned before, there was one other person (sort  
of) in the house with the girls. However, they didn't  
realize he was there. That's right, the other person was  
none other than Ryoga Hibiki. Or should I say: P-chan.

Poor P-chan hadn't known what hit him.

He had come home finally, to find himself up in Akane's  
room. There he rejoiced greatly. Unfortunately, his  
rejoicing had been short-lived because he had accidentally  
wound up under Akane's bed somehow.. While she and Shampoo  
had been IN it.

There was now a bright red blood stain on the carpet beneath  
Akane's bed. From the angle of the spray, it was obvious the  
blood had come from the unconscious pig's nose..

The poor little pig also almost had a heart attack when he  
discovered that HIS Akane was a hentai.

Of course he was gonna blame Ranma for this.. Once he'd  
regained consciousness that is..

That'd help..

Anyway, a few hours passed, or so it seemed when P-chan  
finally started to come to.. By this time the room was  
empty, and P-chan started to think maybe it had just been an  
awful dream..

Then Akane and Shampoo returned.. with Ukyo..

He was just squirming out from under the bed, when all of a  
sudden, something fell on his head.. He shook it off and  
finally got an eye full of... a pair of pink underpants...

He squealed in surprise.. really loudly..

Akane blinked from where she was tangled in Ukyo's arms and  
Shampoo's arms.. "What was that?"

Ukyo and Shampoo both paused, having heard it too. They  
looked at each other confused, than all three leaned over  
the edge of the bed to have a look. What they saw was a  
little black pig running around in circles bweeing at Ukyo's  
underpants.

Shampoo gasped. "Hiya..."

"Why the heck is that pig oinking at my underwear?" Ukyo  
asked incredulously.

The others shrugged.

"Well, whatever the reason, I think you'd better get him  
outta here Akane.." Ukyo said. "There're some things not  
even a pet should see and I'd say this's one of them.."

Shampoo nodded sagely at that..

Akane meanwhile, picked up P-chan. He went catatonic at the  
feel of her naked breasts against him.. then cringed when he  
remembered where they'd been.. His eyes screwed shut tight  
in an attempt to block out sensation and the memory of the  
girls.. together.

The short haired martial artist walked downstairs and put  
the pig down on the dirty laundry in the basket. She arched  
an eyebrow when he didn't turn around and look at her, but  
ignored it. She told him to stay put and that she'd be back  
later, then she left and went back to the warm, welcoming  
arms of her friends.

They continued their playing for awhile, but Shampoo didn't  
seem to be putting her heart into it. Something was  
obviously bothering her.

The other two quickly noticed. "What's wrong Sham-chan?"  
Akane asked, kissing the amazon on the cheek.

Shampoo sighed. "A-chan.. do you still sleep with that pig?"

Akane blinked. "Well, yeah.."

Shampoo inadvertently shuddered.. "Hiya.. Nobody ever told  
you?"

Ukyo looked confused. "Told her what?" She looked at Akane  
with confusion in her eyes.

Akane had a look of incomprehension on her face for a moment  
as she tried to figure out what Shampoo was talking about.  
Then it hit her. "Oh! You mean about Ryoga!" She grinned.  
"Of course I know about THAT, I've known for a long time."

She was met by two shocked faces. But both girls were  
shocked for different reasons:

Shampoo: "You knew!"

Ukyo: "What about Ryoga!"

Akane gave Shampoo a rather indignant look. "Come now, you  
didn't REALLY think I was THAT dumb, did you?" To Ukyo she  
said: "Ryoga's P-Chan."

Shampoo was looking very sheepish.. "Well.. if you knew then  
why still treat him as pet?"

Ukyo didn't answer but was going through a state of shock..

"He doesn't know I know." Akane answered. "If I treated him  
any different, he would've gotten suspicious."

"But why you no beat living shit outta him?" Shampoo was  
still confused. "You're not mad?"

At that, Akane turned sheepish. "Well, you see.. I've, uhm..  
well.. been kinda.. using him..."

When Akane turned sheepish, Shampoo took on a sly look. "Oh?  
What for?" This was a new side to Akane that Shampoo found  
interesting..

Meanwhile, Ukyo was still looking shell-shocked.

Akane sighed and couldn't meet Shampoo's sly look. "I was  
using him.. to make Ranma jealous... Whenever Ranma would  
chase 'P-Chan' around the house cuz he slept in my bed, I  
thought it was because he had feelings for me... but then  
he'd go and do something REALLY stupid and I wouldn't be  
sure any more.. So I kept Ryoga as a pet, hoping one day  
Ranma would get fed up and just tell me that he didn't want  
P-Chan sleeping with me... but he never did..." She sighed  
again and sunk lower into the covers.

Shampoo nodded. "Is okay, A-chan. I did same thing to  
Mousse.." She gave her short-haired lover a kiss on the top  
of the head. "Ranma just too stupid to know good thing when  
he see it."

"Yeah A-chan." Ukyo chimed in from the other side of Akane.  
"Ranchan wouldn't know something as great as you if it bit  
him on the butt." She may have still been rather shocked  
about the Ryoga revelation (she'd always liked that boy,  
maybe she might've had a relationship with him someday if  
she hadn't gotten involved with Akane and Shampoo.. of  
course, he would've had to get over his fascination with  
Akane first..) but Ukyo knew when it was necessary to  
reassure a close friend.

Akane seemed to perk up a bit. "Really?" she asked. "Thanks  
guys." And she French kissed them both.

And that, of course, started them up again.

So we'll just change scenes again.

Back in the laundry room, Ryoga (who was still currently  
P-Chan) was pondering over what could have possibly caused  
his beautiful Akane to do something so.. so.. VILE. And of  
course he came to the usual conclusion. It was all Ranma's  
fault. Though THIS time, he was right.

Well, Ryoga had to be right about it being Ranma's fault  
SOMETIME.

Anyway, Ryoga then took it upon himself to beat the living  
daylights out of Ranma, (again) and then try to find a way  
to cure Akane of.. of.. whatever it was that caused her to  
do THIS..

But first, he had to change back to a human..

And that meant he had to find his way to the bathroom..

With his sense of direction, that would take a minor  
miracle..

He wandered around for forty minutes before some how  
accidentally falling into the bath and subsequently turning  
back into a human. Fortunately though, nobody was IN it this  
time..

Thank God for dumb luck.

Ryoga growled, still extremely pissed off about what he saw.  
(Though he tried not to think about it TOO much, or he'd get  
a nose bleed and faint again..) Instead, he got out of the  
tub, and started looking around for his hidden clothing.

He found them in their usual spot, and, keeping them in his  
line of vision walked over to them. After drying and getting  
dressed, he tried to find the door.. and ended up in the Cat  
Cafe's pantry. Which is where Mousse found him.

Mousse proceeded to glomp Ryoga. "SHAMPOO! At last I've  
found you! Why have you been hiding from me?" The blind  
martial artist blinked, "And how did you get so big and  
buffed up?" he asked, feeling Ryoga's tense muscles.

"Who you callin' SHAMPOO? Put your glasses on." the Lost  
Boy growled, trying not to bash in the amazon's skull.

Mousse blinked. That voice didn't sound like his loving  
Shampoo. He pulled out his glasses from a sleeve of his robe  
and slipped them on. Now only slightly blind, Mousse shoved  
his face into Ryoga's to take a better look. "Oh.. It's just  
you, Hibiki.." He sounded disappointed.

Ryoga snorted, but decided to get to the point. "You haven't  
seen Ranma around anywhere have you?" he asked the myopic  
young man. "I've gotta tell him about what's happened to  
Akane." He paused and cracked his knuckles. "And beat him up  
for it."

"Hmmm..." Mousse thought back to the course of his week.. "I  
think the last I saw him was last Tuesday.. yeah.. he  
defeated me once again, then went home.. " Mousse shrugged.  
"After that I'm not sure where he went. Oh and what's the  
matter with Akane Tendo?" the Chinese male amazon asked  
curiously.

Ryoga fumed at the news that Mousse hadn't seen Ranma  
lately, that meant HE would have to track down the fiend  
himself.. Mousse's question then registered. "Well.. it's  
like this..." He then 'informed' Mousse of the girls'  
'extracurricular activities'.

Mousse didn't look as shocked as he was disappointed..  
"Shampoo.." he murmured, softly.. He then sighed. "I was  
afraid of this.. I guess Shampoo can't change, even if she  
had been taken out of that evil village.."

Ryoga looked slightly confused about Mousse's reaction, so  
Mousse explained to Ryoga the way of most amazon females..

The Lost Boy's jaw dropped. "You're.. you're KIDDING!" To  
Ryoga, it was just INCONCEIVABLE that Akane had been caught  
up in something like THAT.

"C'mon, have you really looked at Shampoo? She's BEAUTIFUL!  
She's a goddess! What kind of idiot, male or female, would  
NOT fall madly in love with her, if she just looks at 'em?"

Ryoga blinked. "Really? I never noticed.."

Mousse spent the next few minutes sputtering around about  
that.

Ryoga merely shrugged. "Well, if you can't help me find  
Ranma," he said. "I'll do it myself." And he turned and  
started up the stairs to the upstairs apartment, determined  
to find the front door if it killed him.

Mousse sighed and went after the lost boy. "Comeon, we'll  
see Ranma together. I think this problem will be effecting  
all of us.."

So together they left in search of the infamous Saotome.

To Be Continued...

What will happen when Mousse and Ryoga find Ranma? Find out  
next time on WR  
P.S: Please don't kill us :Sweatdrops:


	8. WR8: The Boys Talk

Last Time: P-chan came a little TOO close to the girl's  
secret for his comfort. He and Mousse try to locate Ranma so  
they can 'talk'.

"WITHOUT RANMA" Part Eight  
By Shikoku and Steel

Ranma, who never had a very long attention span when it came  
to anything other than fighting or eating, had long ago  
given up looking for the lost boy. He had decided that it  
was almost impossible to do, as Ryoga could be practically  
anywhere, so he gave it up, figuring that Ryoga would just  
find him.. He always seemed to be able to do that  
eventually..

For now, Ranma was sitting on the roof of the Tendo house,  
watching the world go by and wishing he could get rid of  
this nagging feeling inside of him that everything about his  
life was all wrong..

Ryoga was, of course, still with Mousse as they roof-hopped  
in their search for Saotome. The male amazon glanced over at  
his disgruntled companion who was scowling as they hopped  
the gap between two buildings.

The reason for Ryoga's unhappiness THIS time was the chain  
leash Mousse had put on him to keep him from wandering off.  
While he knew it was a good idea, it was still humiliating.

"This is humiliating." the lost boy complained.

Mousse sighed, indicating that this wasn't the first time  
that Ryoga had brought that up. "I know, but I don't want to  
end up looking for Saotome AND you."

"I know I KNOW.." Ryoga growled, and he did, but that didn't  
mean he couldn't irritate the hell out of Mousse for doing  
it to him.

And he was doing a REALLY good job of that. Mousse thought  
he had a humongous headache.

Ryoga just snorted and continued to grumble to himself. He  
was irritated about the leash, but what was really making  
him mad, was still Ranma and his desire to cave the young  
martial artist's head in. Though it could be argued that  
this was nothing new for Ryoga, this was actually the first  
time Ryoga was RIGHT in blaming Ranma. True, he might've  
been only PARTIALLY right, but he was right nonetheless.

We might have to celebrate and give the lost boy a party  
after this.. :-)

Anyway, the two young men eventually came  
to the Tendo's house where they discovered the pig-tailed  
boy laying on the roof.

"How convenient," said Mousse.

And without further ado, the two airborne martial artists  
attacked Ranma.

Saotome barely escaped being pounded into the roofing tiles.  
The other two had (naturally) screamed his name and told him  
to say his prayers, thus giving him the precious warning he  
needed to get out of their way in just the nick of time.

You know, with all the times that's happened, one might  
start thinking that these people yelled like that on  
PURPOSE..

Ranma's avoidance of their opening attack didn't seem to  
faze them. (Does it ever?) They kept right on attacking on  
the roof, causing more of the ceiling in the room below them  
to fall down.

Part of it landed in Soun Tendo's tea, from where the owner  
of the Tendo dojo sat playing 'Go' with his panda companion.  
"It appears that young Ranma has found himself another  
fight, Saotome," the long haired, martial artist commented.  
He appeared used to watching his house fall apart.

The panda mumbled something and nodded. It was no big deal  
to him, either.

The two men continued on with their game.

It might not've bothered the two old martial artists, but it  
sure as heck bugged Akane. Having the roof fall on her head  
was REALLY wrecking the mood..

"Raannmmaaaa!" she yelled angrily, flinging the blanket off  
herself as she got up. "Of all the times for that IDIOT to  
pick a fight.." she growled, tugging on her discarded  
clothes. She yanked open her window (nearly breaking it in  
the process) and started for the roof to give that.. that..  
BOY a piece of her mind..

Left behind in her bed, Ukyo looked to Shampoo. "Should we  
get into this yet?" the brunette asked the amazon.

Shampoo shrugged, "A-chan can take care of herself, but I  
don't mind helping her pay back interrupting OUR moment."

Ukyo nodded. "You've got yourself a point, sugar."

So the two other girls started searching around the room for  
their own clothes. Minutes later, they also met everyone  
else up on the roof.

What they arrived to, was the sight of a VERY angry Akane  
holding Ranma up off the roof by the front of his shirt. She  
was shaking him and yelling something about rude jerks,  
insensitive bakas and if he wanted to fight, why didn't he  
take it into the dojo where it belonged!

Mousse and Ryoga were standing off to the side, being too  
busy sweatdropping to help Ranma, who was being shaken so  
bad it looked like his head would fall off..

Shampoo and Ukyo targeted the two other men and fixed a  
glare on them.

"Stupid Mousse," Shampoo shouted at the glasses wearing  
martial artist. "What you doing here?"

Mousse jumped. "Sh-shampoo!" He hadn't realized she was  
there. "I-I-I-" he stammered, being too surprised to  
coherently answer the irate amazon female.

Shampoo just shook her head. Men. she thought, darkly..  
Who needs them?

"So what's YOUR excuse, Hibiki?" Ukyo grilled the Lost Boy.

The Lost Boy almost got another nose bleed, thinking of what  
brought him here..

"WELL?" Ukyo demanded impatiently, tapping one foot.

Mousse elbowed Hibiki in the chest. He then answered for  
him. "We've just come to talk to Saotome," he said.

Shampoo snorted. "Your idea of talk to Ranma is cutting  
him in half? Stupid Mousse."

Right then, Akane interrupted their conversation by throwing  
Ranma into both Mousse AND Ryoga. The boys reacted just in  
time to catch the pig-tailed martial artist before the force  
of the throw knocked them all down onto their backs.

"Baka." she growled. Obviously Ranma had said something that  
didn't sit well with her..

Ukyo and Shampoo glanced at her questioningly, but then  
decided it'd be better to ask in private. Speaking of  
private, that was where they'd all prefer to be right now.  
They wanted to continue with their playing..

"OWW!" Ranma growled angrily. "What'ja do THAT for!" He  
turned his angry look on Akane.

"Can't you guys find someplace ELSE to try and kill each  
other?" Ukyo yelled at the three young men.

"Yeah, Ranma!" Akane put in. "Our roof has ENOUGH holes in it  
already, it's doesn't need you making MORE!"

"Besides, you so distracting.." Shampoo added, still  
thinking about that empty warm bed..

All three boys cowered under the girl's yelling. It was  
three to three, but they still felt outnumbered.

Fortunately for the boys, the girls quickly lost interest in  
them, preferring to dwell on other things. Sure that the  
boys had learned their lesson and wouldn't make the mistake  
of disturbing them again (at least until next time), the  
girls all left to go back to Akane's room.. and her warm  
bed..

Ranma watched them go. He shook his head to himself. He  
might turn INTO a girl, but he STILL didn't understand  
them.. He sat down dejectedly, wondering why his old insults  
didn't work with Akane the same way they once did. He was  
slowly starting to realize that being with her wasn't the  
same as it once was.. The fact that she could ignore him so  
quickly proved it.

Finally he looked up at Mousse and Ryoga, who were still  
hovering over him. "Well? Aren't you going to beat me up  
now?"

Ryoga looked over at Mousse. "We need to talk." And the two  
promptly sat down.

Ranma looked at them suspiciously. "What about?" He didn't  
usually talk to his rivals unless a threat big enough to  
force them to team up came to Nerima. He hoped that wasn't  
the case. For the first time in Ranma's life, he wasn't in  
the mood to fight anything.

"We think you know, Saotome," said Mousse. The Chinese  
martial artist pushed his glasses to sit on the top of his  
head, then peered at the other martial artist with big,  
blue, half-blind eyes.

Ranma merely stared back, not saying anything. Ryoga sighed.  
"It's about Akane and the other girls." he stated, then  
quickly grabbed his rapidly heating nose to stifle the blood  
that was trying to leak out. He really had to stop thinking  
about THAT picture in such.. detail..

Ranma's heart stopped when Ryoga mentioned them. Suddenly  
that picture that had been fixed into his mind, came back  
again. The one that up until now, he had been trying to  
forget about, swearing it off as being just a part of his  
warped Nekoken state. But why then was Ryoga bringing them  
up..?

"Uh.. I don't know what you're talking about," said Ranma.  
Ah, denial is truly a stubborn thing.

Mousse gave Ryoga a pointed look. (Though he had been  
wanting to look at Ranma.) "Oh come on, Saotome, you can't be  
that much of an idiot.."

Ryoga turned Mousse to face Ranma.

"What do ya mean by THAT?" Ranma demanded, hoping to start  
a fight. Maybe if they started fighting, Ryoga and Mousse  
would forget whatever they were getting at and he could  
continue to ignore the really bad feeling he was getting in  
the pit of his stomach.

But unfortunately, Mousse wasn't going to fall for it. "I'm  
talking about Shampoo and I guess Akane Tendo and Ukyo  
Kuonji, being gay."

Ranma jerked at hearing Mousse be so.. blunt about it. He  
hadn't expected the long haired young man to actually SAY  
it..

Ryoga looked rather unsettled himself and he uncomfortably  
shifted his sitting position. He swallowed. "Uh.. yeah..  
that." he nodded. How could Mousse be so.. casual about it?

Mousse didn't notice Ranma and Ryoga's reactions to what he  
said.. possibly because he couldn't see them that clearly.  
"I mean, haven't you noticed that the girl's have been  
awfully.. close lately..?"

Ranma fidgeted and tried to ignore Mousse's first statement.  
"Well, yeah.." he said. "But girls're just like that..  
right?" Of course they were, he told himself. Afterall,  
girls always hung out in groups at the mall, and during  
lunch time and they were ALWAYS going to the bathroom in  
groups. That's all it was.. wasn't it?

Mousse shrugged. "Sure, but how often do girl's share the  
same bed.. and underwear?"

Ranma jumped and nearly fell off the roof. He stared at the  
myopic young man, his eyes wide. THAT he REALLY wasn't  
expecting, and DEFINITELY didn't want to hear. He couldn't  
say anything but he made some interesting gurgly noises.

And Ryoga fainted, with blood shooting outta his nose..

Mousse just watched the two of them with slight amusement.  
"You mean you haven't noticed?"

"NO!" Ranma exclaimed, appalled at the very THOUGHT. Sharing  
underwear? Eeeeewwwwww...

Mousse shrugged. "Well, it's true.. Shampoo has always been  
that way, but I am kind of surprised Akane Tendo and Ukyo  
Kuonji would go for it.. Well, guess I'm not surprised  
they'd go for HER, but still.."

Ranma was really surprised that Ukyo and Akane would go  
along with it too. Afterall, they already had HIM, what else  
could they possibly need?

"But I guess I can't blame ANYONE for wanting Shampoo.."  
Mousse paused a moment to drool a bit at the thought of  
Shampoo's great bod..

The pig-tailed martial artist poked at Ryoga to try to take  
his mind off what Mousse was saying. He REALLY didn't like  
the thoughts that were racing through his brain right this  
moment. He was starting to feel ill..

Mousse, too busy dwelling on Shampoo, left Ranma to his  
thoughts.

Both men (and the unconscious Lost Boy) would probably have  
stayed there in their own thoughts forever, but then a  
rather loud moan of passion from the room below them managed  
to grab their attentions.

Ranma nearly fell off the roof again. "The heck-?" he  
exclaimed, surprised.

"Why don't you go see what that was?" Mousse pretty much  
challenged Ranma to do.

Ranma, never having refused a challenge in his life,  
couldn't even ignore this one.

He soon wished he HAD refused:

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! RANMA YOU HENTAI!" Akane screamed as she  
hurriedly pulled up the sheet around her chest. She looked  
frantically around room then bent down, picked up a  
convenient barbell and threw it at Ranma.

The pig-tailed martial artist, who had been stunned by the  
sight of Akane's naked body, (and the hands and lips that  
had been doing wonderful things to it) completely failed to  
dodge the weight and was struck dead in the center of his  
face by it. Of course he was knocked to the ground through  
the window he had been peeking at Akane through.

"Told you." Mousse muttered just behind Ranma. He had the  
STILL unconscious Ryoga slung over his shoulder, as Ranma  
fell past him.

Mousse however, didn't have long to be smug, for Shampoo  
soon belted him with Akane's OTHER barbell. "Stupid Mousse!  
What you still doing here?" Shampoo huffed. Why did the baka  
always have to spoil her fun?

"Sh-Shampoo!" Mousse stuttered, searching for his glasses  
that had fallen off his head with the barbell hit him and  
knocked him back to the grass. "I-I was just trying to  
convince Saotome about you and Akane Tendo and Ukyo Kuonji."  
He peered through his thick lenses at what he hoped was  
Shampoo's direction.

What he saw, however, was Ramna's upside down body where the  
boy had impacted a rock with his face. Saotome twitched  
slightly.

"Sha- Shampoo?" Mousse croaked. (He of course, wasn't in any  
better shape from his own impact with a barbell.) "When did  
you get so crumpled and bloodied?"

Shampoo snorted at Mousse's stupidity.

Akane scowled down at the three boys, two of which were  
unconscious. "Why don't you just buzz off and mind your own  
business?"

Ranma suddenly flipped to his feet and seemed completely  
alert. He stood there for a moment. "Ooowwwwww..." he  
muttered, then fell back over..

All three girls sweatdropped as one.

Upon recovering, Ukyo spoke first. "You know, I don't think  
there's any avoiding this one.. We've been caught.."

Akane sighed and pulled away from the window where the girls  
had been watching the boys. "I suppose you're right.." she  
said, sitting down on the bed. She adjusted the sheet still  
worn wrapped around herself.

"That is not a bad thing is it?" asked Shampoo.

The short haired girl blinked. "Huh?" She looked up. "No  
it's not a bad thing. I just hate being interrupted." she  
said with a shrug.

"Ah," said Shampoo with a smile. "Interrupting can be good..  
It mean we get to start up again." and with that, the purple  
heaired beauty pounced on Akane..

"ACK!" Akane shrieked as she fell back over onto the bed.  
She laughed at Shampoo's eagerness. "Well, you DO have a  
point." She then drew the amazon down for a kiss.

Ukyo watched the two with amusement. They'd already spent  
who knew how long playing and those two were STILL full of  
energy. She giggled to herself for a moment, then glanced  
out the window at the boys. Ranma and Ryoga were still  
unconscious and Mousse was searching for his glasses. She  
decided to leave them there and went to play with her  
friends.

While the girls were playing in Akane's room, on the ground  
Mousse had finally found his glasses. He sighed, wondering  
what to do now..

He pondered his problem for awhile, then decided he couldn't  
do ANYTHING if Ranma and Ryoga wouldn't wake up. So he  
decided to fix that little detail..

By first kicking Saotome in the head.

"OWWWWWW!" cried Ranma popping up and rubbing his head.  
"What'd ya do THAT for?"

"You were unconscious. Now you're not." Mousse replied  
simply. He turned to Ryoga. "Help me wake Hibiki."

Ranma glared at Mousse for a moment, not appreciating his  
logic, but helped Mousse with Ryoga anyway.

The two boys tossed Hibiki into the Koi pond where he came  
up as a spluttering, half drowned pig. Mousse then poured hot water over him from a tea kettle Mousse had  
up his sleeve.

Ryoga was of course glaring at them, showing both fangs when  
he had recovered his humanity.. "What did you do THAT for?"  
He yelled, angrily pulling his soaked shirt back on.

"You're being unconscious was not beneficial to my cause."  
Mousse answered, pushing his glasses onto his head. "For us  
to talk to the girls, you both must be awake to hear it."

Both Ranma and Ryoga proceeded to look nervous. "You mean..  
we have to go back... in there?" said Ranma.

Mousse shrugged. "If you want to know what's going on, yes."  
he said to a large rock.

Ranma and Ryoga proceeded to sweatdrop.

Mousse didn't notice since he couldn't see them.. and he was  
still looking at the rock..

"Comon, Duck-boy," said Ranma finally losing his patience  
with Mousse.He grabbed the taller boy by the collar and pulled him away. "Let's get this over with."

Ranma was finally resigned to his fate..

Ryoga followed dumbly behind them, not quite sure what to  
make of things at the moment..

Ranma wasn't sure what to think, either, but the two parts  
of his mind that he didn't know about did..

Spade whistled, which was very uncharacteristic of his 'proper' image. "Well.. there's no getting around THAT one." He observed. "I'm sure  
we'll be admitting the truth to ourselves very shortly.."

"Heh heh heh..." was Ace's response. He wasn't listening to  
Spade however, he was staring (and drooling) at the picture that Ranma was trying to forget. "Yowza.."

Spade looked over at his counterpart and rolled his eyes.  
"Soon, very soon, life as we know it will be done for.." he declared  
dramatically.

Ace began drooling on Spade's shoes..

To Be Continued...

What exactly are the boys going to do when they try to talk  
to the girls yet, again. Will the girls let them live for  
interrupting them AGAIN?  
Will the truth finally make its way through Ranma's thick  
skull? Find out next time..


	9. WR9: Kuno and Kodachi Get Involved

Last Time: Mousse and Ryoga find Ranma, and  
together they 'team up' to spy on the girls. They get more  
than they bargained for and are promptly kicked out. But did  
they learn from that? No.. so they go back into the  
lionesses' den...

"WITHOUT RANMA" Part  
Nine  
By Shikoku and Steel

The next morning, three bandaged mummies sat in a row at the  
Tendo's table,  
trying to drink their breakfast. (It was the only way that  
they could eat.)  
The first mummy had a pigtail sticking out of the back of  
his bandaged head,  
the second wore a pair of inch thick glasses, and the third  
mummy had a  
yellow bandanna with little black rectangles all over it  
wrapped around  
his head.

Across from them sat three irritated young women who were  
blatantly giving  
the mummies the 'cold shoulder' and no amount of pleading  
would make the  
girls forgive them for interrupting yet AGAIN.

If Ranma had been able to move, he would have whapped  
Mousse. "This is all  
YOUR fault," he whispered to the taller mummy.

"Shut up, Ranma!" Ryoga snapped. He and Ranma stood up and  
started facing  
off, but before they could begin their battle, they suddenly  
felt an intense  
amount of chi. Turning, they came face to face with three  
angry, aura generating  
females.

"Eh heh heh heh!" they laughed with their hands behind their  
heads. The  
girls glared some more and they quickly sat down. They were  
forced to resort  
to shooting dirty looks at each other lest they suffered the  
girls' wrath  
again.

Now that the dumb boys had shut up, the girls went back to  
eating their  
breakfast in peace.

Interestingly enough, this went unnoticed by the other  
residents of the  
household. Soun was reading his morning paper, Genma was  
lost in his own  
world of food, Kasumi was happy and cheerful as usual and  
Nabiki had already  
left for school, claiming to have an early morning  
'appointment'.

They had all probably perfected the art of ignoring Ranma  
and Akane when  
they were in one of their.. moods.. They had years of  
practice after all..

Hmm.. point taken.. Anyway, right about here was when Ukyo  
and Akane realized  
that if they didn't get their tails in gear, they'd be late  
for school.  
Akane grabbed her lunch from Kasumi and was out the in a  
flash. Ukyo was  
right behind her, and poor lil Shampoo sniffed and looked  
sad, cause they  
had left her all alone..

'Til Akane came running back in, grabbed her by the hand and  
dragged her  
along behind.

All this happened in such a short amount of time that Ranma  
hadn't even  
gotten up from the table yet.

The other two mummies blinked. "Do they always leave in such  
a hurry?" Mousse  
asked, wishing he could move his arm close enough to his  
face so he could  
push his drooping glasses back up.

Ryoga nodded sagely, having seen it enough times as P-chan  
to know. Meanwhile  
Ranma was trying to get his knees to bend so he could walk..

"Wow.." said Mousse, impressed.

Shampoo let Akane drag her a long ways up the street, before  
finally saying  
anything. "Uh, A-chan? Where you taking me?"

Akane and Ukyo blinked then at once they stopped.

Shampoo almost tripped and fell down because of the sudden  
stop, but Akane  
didn't let that happen.

Ukyo looked to Akane. "She has a point, sugar." she said.

Akane nodded. "Yeah I guess.. sorry 'bout that Sham-chan."  
she apologized.  
"Guess I wasn't thinking.."

"Is okay." Shampoo answered, giving them a reassuring grin.  
"Shampoo didn't  
want to be alone with men, anyway."

Akane laughed. "Very true." she said with a grin.

"Yeah." Ukyo nodded. "I'm still not sure how to act around  
them.. now that  
they kind of know and all.."

"They just need get used to it." Shampoo stated.

The others nodded, still not sure if they like having other  
people knowing  
their secret.

"I guess you're right.." said Ukyo, hesitantly.

"You want Shampoo make them forget?" the amazon asked.  
"Great-Grandmother  
still have 119 shampoo."

Ukyo and Akane glanced at each other and mentally debated  
with themselves  
for a few minutes. Akane finally sighed. "That sounds nice,  
but they'd probably  
just end up finding out again sooner or later. I think we're  
just gonna  
have to live with them knowing. Maybe then Ranma and the  
others will leave  
us alone."

Shampoo nodded thoughtfully.

Ukyo noticed. "Alright, what's going on in that  
purple-haired head of yours,  
sugar?"

Shampoo looked up, a bit surprised by Ukyo's tone. "Shampoo  
was just thinking  
that it your decision. Shampoo won't interfere if you no  
want her to."

Ukyo took Shampoo up into a hug. "It's not just 'our'  
decision, Love, it  
should be ALL of ours."

Shampoo shook slightly at being called 'Love' and she hugged  
back. Nobody  
had ever called her that before.. (Well, Mousse had, but with all the effect  
it had he might as well have called her a doornob..)

Akane added her own hug and embraced them both. "Yeah, we're  
all in this  
TOGETHER. For better or worse, no matter what."

After school that day, Ranma trudged along the fence. He was  
in a deep blue funk. Whoever said that 'ignorance was bliss' was probably right, he mused to himself.

He now knew the truth the girls were hiding from him, and  
he'd been obsessing  
over it the whole day. It didn't help that he had to watch  
them all day,  
too. Sure, they were subtle, but Ranma had caught every  
single time Akane  
and Ukyo touched (which was actually quite often). It was  
even more obvious  
when Shampoo was there. She barely hid her affections..

Ranma couldn't believe that he actually MISSED that it used  
to be HIM that  
Shampoo was affectionate to..

Yes, Ranma's ego had definitely been squashed. So much to  
the point, that  
he'd even resort to the most.. unpleasant means to heal his  
ego..

And that's what he was going to do.

He hopped off the fence as he approached his destination.  
There before him  
loomed the massive gates of the Kuno Mansion. He shuddered at  
the thought  
of what he was about to do, but he couldn't help it. He was  
a Saotome! Saotomes  
were SUPPOSED to be swamped by so many girls that EVERY other  
boy was jealous  
to the point of hatred! He'd been really proud of his harem  
of fiancees  
and now it seemed that they'd abandoned him for EACH OTHER.

That thought REALLY killed his over-sized male ego. Which is  
why he was  
currently standing in front of the Kunos' gate, ready to knock.

Yes, He was desperate:

He was here to see Kodachi. cue dramatic scary music He  
raised hand to  
the gate, swallowed, then knocked loudly.

To his relief (kind of) Sasuke answered the door. "Oh, my  
Ranma Saotome,  
what are YOU doing here?" the little ninja/butler asked.

Ranma squared his shoulders and gritted his teeth. "I.. I  
wanna see Kodachi."  
he said.

"I'm afraid you have come to the wrong place, Ranma  
Saotome." said another  
voice. Ranma's gaze moved past the ninja retainer and up the  
path to where  
Tatewaki Kuno was walking toward the gate. "My twisted  
sister no longer  
resides within this noble dwelling, but may I inquire as to  
why such a lowly  
vermin as yourself wishes to see her?"

Ranma blinked. "Kodachi's not here anymore? Why? Where is  
she?" A small  
part of him actually felt concern for the psychopath..

"Do not worry, my sister is perfectly fine, I assure you."  
Kuno said, clearly  
irritated by Ranma's presence. "In fact, I was just on my  
way out to visit  
her."

"Master.." Sasuke said slowly. "Why not take Saotome with  
you? Surely even  
he has enough honor not to cause a disturbance there."

Kuno's lips pursed in thought as he considered. Ranma  
fidgeted slightly.  
"Come along then." the kendoist said curtly. "My sister  
would no doubt enjoy  
seeing you once again, though the gods themselves only know  
why." He pushed  
past Ranma, fully expecting the shorter youth to follow, and  
continued down  
the road to only he knew where.

It was a strong case of curiosity that made Ranma start to  
follow the Kendoist.  
As they walked in silence, Ranma's mind started thinking of  
all the possibilities  
of where Kodachi could be. His two favorites were that  
Kodachi was finally  
thrown in jail for disturbing the peace or something.. or  
that Kodachi was  
finally labeled insane and was taken to the Funny Farm.

It was because of these daydreams that made Ranma so  
surprised to see that  
they stopped at the Nerima Catholic Church.

"What're we doin here?" Ranma wondered out loud. "You switch  
religions or  
somethin' Kuno?"

Kuno shook his head. "Are you really so simple, Saotome?"

Just then, one of the nuns that were scurrying about, noticed  
them and hurried  
over. "Brother Dear!" she exclaimed. "How good of you to  
visit!" And she hugged the upperclassman.

Kuno hugged back. "Why of course, my dear younger sister."  
said he.

"KODACHI!" Ranma exclaimed, shocked. He couldn't believe  
his eyes, Kodachi was a nun! A CATHOLIC nun! He nearly fainted dead away.

The Kuno's stopped hugging to stare at him. "What's wrong  
with him?" Kodachi asked, looking concerned.

"I believe, my dear sister, that the sight of your noble  
Kuno self, in the  
accouterment of a Sister of the Church has, shall we say,  
'surprised' him."  
Kuno answered, merely casting the Saotome youth a  
distasteful glance.

"Oh.. that's funny," and Kodachi started laughing, a gentler  
version of  
her psycho laugh, with one hand lifted delicately to her  
mouth in a feminine motion.

Ranma looked ready to faint again..

"What's the matter, Ranma-dear?" Kodachi asked. He looked so  
cute at the  
moment; she almost wished she hadn't taken that vow of  
celibacy... Almost.

"I think your choice of 'vocation' has, it appears,  
dumbfounded him." Kuno  
said for Ranma who seemed have to lost all control over his  
body.

"Dumbfounded him?" Kodachi looked surprised at the idea.  
"Why, but where  
else would an innocent snowflake, such as myself, in the  
world of dirty  
dirty people, go to stay clean and pure?"

"'Dirty people'?" Ranma asked, confused. Right now his brain  
was REALLY having a hard time absorbing this..

"Why that wicked girl, Akane Tendo, and her 'friends'"  
Kodachi informed him, putting a lot of sarcasm in the 'friends' part.

Ranma's jaw dropped. They KNEW? But.. but HOW?

"My Dear Sister," Kuno said to Kodachi in a reprimanding  
tone. "I would  
ask you to not speak of Akane Tendo in such a manner. It  
does not befit a woman of The Faith such as yourself."

Kodachi blushed a bit at her big brother's reprimand. "I'm  
sorry, Brother Dear, but I only speak the truth. Someday your eyes will be opened and you will see, but it isn't my place to help you. Forgive me?"

"Of course Sister." Kuno answered, smiling gently. He then  
turned to Ranma.

"Now Saotome, was there any specific reason you wanted to  
see my sister?"

Ranma blanched at having both Kunos staring at him so.. The  
reason he had wanted to see Kodachi was quickly defeated by the sight of her in her nun habit. It left him stuttering, incoherently grasping for a good excuse for being there.

Kuno arched an eyebrow at the shorter young man. He'd always  
known Saotome was an idiot, but he'd never known that Ranma was a  
STUTTERING idiot.

Kodachi merely watched him curiously, wondering what he  
wanted to see her about.

"Uh.. you see.. I.. uh.. just wanted to say 'hi', so 'Hi!'  
He then shook Kodachi's hand real fast, then retreated, walking as fast as he could, trying to be as dignified as possible under the circumstances.

He left two rather befuddled Kuno siblings in his wake.

"What's wrong with him?" Kodachi wondered aloud.

"I have been wondering the same since I met him." Kuno  
answered, shaking his head.

Ranma aimlessly wandered around Nerima, walking wherever the  
fencetop took  
him. The reason for his wanderings was that he was deep in  
thought. (Well, as deep as RANMA could go anyway.) He was pondering the odd change in the Kunos. He wondered why Kodachi had suddenly become a nun, and he wondered why Kuno wasn't using the flowery nonsencical gibberish that Kunoist was so infamous for.

It seemed to him, as he walked about, that just about all  
the major players had changed in some way.. Akane, Ukyo, Shampoo, Ryoga, Mousse, and even the Kunos were different now.. Boy, he had no idea so much could become so different in only three months.. He wasn't sure he liked it..

The reason why, of course, was pure ego. He was no longer  
the center of attention anymore. He was used to having all the girls  
fawn all over him, and a good fight from all the guys. He couldn't even  
remember the last time someone glomped him.

As if in answer, water fell onto him from the sky and  
something suddenly  
glomped onto HER chest. She looked down and to her horror,  
found none-other-than  
Happosai, nuzzling his head in her ample bosom.

At least some things didn't change. Ranma-chan was actually  
HAPPY to see  
the little pervert. She showed her happiness by pounding  
Happy to the ground.

"Get off me you Old FREAK!" she yelled in her soprano  
voice.

"Ranma! Is that any way to treat your Master?" Happosai  
exclaimed, twirling his pipe.

"Under the circumstances.. YES!" answered Ranma-chan. She  
started trying  
to punch Happy again, but he kept darting out of the way.

"Old.. FREAK!" Ranma-chan snarled, frustrated. She decided  
to take out all  
of her aggravations on the diminutive pervert by smashing  
him into bean  
paste. If only she could actually HIT him..

Unfortunately before a single blow was landed, Happosai got  
bored and with  
a touch of his pipe, Ranma-chan was airborn. He then cackled  
evilly and  
hopped away, flipping up skirts and glomping young girls  
along the way.

As the red-haired, pig-tailed girl flew through the air, she  
noted again, how she just didn't seem to be winning lately.

To Be Continued...

Will Ranma ewver win again? Can the girls deal with the boys  
knowing their secret? Find out next time..


	10. WR10: Nabiki Gets Involved

"Without Ranma"  
Part Ten  
By  
Shikoku and Steel

Akane admired herself in the mirror of a change room at a  
new martial arts store that had just opened a few days ago.  
Upon seeing the place, Akane had decided to go in and see  
what they had to offer. That was when she'd  
discovered the varieties of different kinds, colors and  
styles of gis. Thinking that her old one was getting a bit..  
threadbare, she decided to get herself a new one.

So now she was looking at her reflection which showed off  
the combination of yellow jacket, black pants and red belt  
she'd chosen. The gi was nondescript except for the round  
logo patch of the store that was on the left side of the jacket.

"Hiya, you are hot!" a high, accented voice declared behind  
the short-haired girl as a purple-haired girl appeared  
looking over her shoulder.

Akane laughed and blushed lightly. "Really think so? Don't  
think it makes my butt look big?" She grinned as she twisted  
so her rear was reflected in the mirror.

"Of course not, A-chan." Shampoo laughed. "You have cute  
little butt." She gave her a lecherous smile.

Akane's grin widened and she pulled Shampoo into her arms.  
After smooching the amazon good, she said: "You have a cute  
butt too." And she squeezed it, causing Shampoo to giggle.

"Would you two hurry up in there!" Ukyo called from outside  
the change room. She was looking over the store's  
startlingly LARGE selection of battle spatulas. (Wow, they really DO have everything here!)

"Oh, she's just in hurry cause she don't want us playing  
without her." Shampoo gave Akane a wink.

The dark haired girl giggled. "Well no one said she couldn't  
join us." Akane grinned.

"That's very true." Shampoo laughed.

Just as Akane's hands were starting to sneak into the folds  
of Shampoo's new gi (which was pink, by the way,  
over black pants and a blue belt) Ukyo  
poked her head into the change room. "Oh for crying out  
loud!" she said, exasperated. "Put a cork on it and let's go  
already! The movie's gunna start without us!"

Ukyo now wore a blue gi top over black pants and a green  
belt.

"Okay, okay. We coming." Akane and Shampoo chimed together,  
then giggled.

The young chef rolled her eyes, then left for the check out  
where they had various weapons and things piled up on the  
counter, waiting to be paid for.

Together their items cost quite a sum, but they were easily  
paid for with money earned from two different restaurants.  
Akane would've chipped in, but she was paying for the movie.

Anyway, Akane and Shampoo finally got themselves under  
control as they made their purchases, said goodbye to the  
pair of girls who owned and ran the store, then headed for Ukyo's  
to dump off their stuff and to change.

"Have we decided on a movie yet?" Ukyo asked as she pulled  
her hair into a high pony-tail.

"I thought we were gunna pick when we get there." Akane  
answered, tying the drawstring on her kung-fu  
pants.

"Ah yeah." Ukyo replied looking a bit sheepish for  
forgetting.

Shampoo didn't say anything, being too busy brushing out her  
long, thick hair.

Akane kissed Ukyo. "I forgive you." She grinned impishly at  
the brunette.

Ukyo kissed back. "I'm glad to hear it." She smiled back.

Shampoo made mock gagging noises at their affection display  
and Akane playfully stuck out her tongue at the amazon, who  
took it as a invitation to kiss the short haired girl.

The rate they were going, they were all going to keep  
kissing each other until they all missed the movie.  
Fortunately, Ukyo was level-headed enough  
to remind them of that. Again.

So finally they stopped making out, finished dressing and  
headed out for the movies.

Once there, they started a friendly debate on which movie to  
see. Eventually though, they decided on an odd combination  
of comedy and action.

Once Akane had bought the tickets, Ukyo hurried off to save  
them some seats while Shampoo and Akane waited in line  
for popcorn and soda.

Soon all three of them were sitting cozy-like in the far  
right corner of the theater in the back. They liked the  
privacy of it.

Steel: Yeah, privacy for making out.

Shikoku: Which they did.

Steel: Profusely. 

So much so, that they were kicked out of the theater by the  
ushers. It was cuz they were making so much noise.

Unperturbed, though a bit annoyed of the indignity  
of being thrown out, the three girls trudged back to Ukyo's  
restaurant and continued their fun in the privacy  
of Ukyo's bedroom.

They played for another couple hours or so, then Shampoo had  
to leave. Her great-grandmother was rather ticked off at her  
for all the times she'd been skipping out on working at the  
restaurant, so today the buxom amazon had promised to help Mousse with  
the work load. She left with great reluctance.

Ukyo and Akane were sorry to see her go, but they were not  
ready to stop playing yet. Ukyo had closed her restaurant  
for the evening, while Akane had told her family that she was  
spending the night there. The Tendos didn't think much about how  
often Akane spent time at Ukyo's or Shampoo's. All they knew was  
that it had been slightly more peaceful at the dojo since  
Akane and her two ex-rivals had become friends.

After awhile, the two had to stop from pure exhaustion. They  
lay on the bed in a sweaty tangle of arms, legs and sheets.  
Akane with her head resting on Ukyo's shoulder, one arm  
slung loosely over the chef's middle. Both were  
tired, but EXTREMELY happy.

They were also extremely naked. Their clothes lay discarded  
on the floor in a heap, having been torn off in the heat of  
passion.

Ukyo pulled Akane closer to her, loving the way the soft  
short hair brushed against her chest and shoulder. The  
brunette nuzzled the top of Akane's head with her chin, and she  
sighed blissfully as she let her head rest there.

Akane smiled to herself and tightened her grip on Ukyo.  
"Anything on your mind?" she asked softly. She was enjoying  
listening to the chef's frantic heartbeat as it slowly  
evened out.

"Mmmm" was all Ukyo said for the moment, but then, softly,  
"Do you ever stop and think how amazing this is?"

"All the time." Akane answered, nuzzling her nose into  
Ukyo's neck. "Who knew one night could change a person's  
life so much?"

Ukyo smiled. "Yeah.. very true.." She reached a hand up away

from Akane's back, and started playing with Akane's hair  
instead. "Did.. did you ever think you'd want this?" Ukyo hesitantly asked. She'd been wondering this for quite awhile.

Akane's eyes opened as she seriously considered this.  
"Well.. I always knew I didn't particularly like boys..  
mostly because of Kuno and those other  
guys at school." She scowled at the memory of her morning  
fights. "But I was never really accepted by the girls  
either.. They never  
really understood why I liked martial arts.." She paused.  
"But to answer your question.. I honestly never really  
thought about it.  
Just wasn't something that was important to me." She  
shrugged.  
"With guys OR girls."

Ukyo nodded, absorbing Akane's words. "How about when Ranma  
came? You DID seem to like him, at least a little bit,  
sugar." Ukyo smiled  
a bit as she remembered the way Akane used to act around  
Ranma. She had once found it quite amusing.. and still did to this day.

Akane grinned slightly. "To tell the truth, I DID like  
Ranma, he can be really sweet when he wants to,  
but more often than not, he made me really  
mad too. At first it was because I was upset about him  
seeing me naked, but eventually I got over it.  
After that most of the times I was mad at  
him was for one of two reasons: first was his arrogance. I  
HATED that! S'one of the many reasons I don't like Kuno.  
The other was how he always made fun of me.."  
She turned her face into Ukyo's body, sighing.

Ukyo hugged Akane, reassuringly. "I can understand why you'd  
be mad at him.. but is that really enough not to love him  
anymore?" Ukyo swallowed, realizing that this conversation was  
starting to get less comfortable.. but the okonomiyaki chef still worried sometimes that everything that had happened to them was  
still just a dream.. a weird, yet wonderful dream..

"The thing is," Akane answered, lifting her face to rest her  
chin below Ukyo's collarbone. "I'm not really sure I loved  
him at all.. Sure I liked him, liked him a lot, but Like is VERY  
different from Love."

"Think so?" Ukyo asked, looking a bit bewildered. She wasn't  
sure what to make of Akane's answer.

Akane nodded. "Yeah, I know so. Can feel it. What I had for  
Ranma wasn't Married Forever Love. I could never see him and  
myself having a life together, and quite frankly, I'm not sure  
I'd WANT a life with him, if you could even call it that."

Ukyo nodded, imagining Akane and Ranma married. She ignored  
the flash of jealousy she felt at that mental picture  
(though she was a  
bit surprised that she was now jealous of Ranma instead of  
Akane) andtried to picture the two living peacefully and happily  
together. Ukyo couldn't see it. Instead she saw Ranma spending all his  
spare time training or fighting someone, while Akane tried to be a good housewife, but failing and walloping Ranma over the head with a mallet each time he pointed out her failures. That didn't seem to be a happy life..

Akane definitely couldn't see it. To her, life would just be  
one big hassle. She'd constantly have to be rescued  
because some nitwit either wanted to marry her (even though she WAS already married) or they wanted to use her as bait to lure Ranma in for a fight.

And if being kidnapped every day wasn't bad enough, she'd  
also have to deal with her home always being invaded by  
people wanting to kill (or marry) either herself, or Ranma or in  
the weirder cases, both. The short haired girl really wasn't sure  
if she wanted to deal with all the crap that surrounded  
Ranma for the REST OF HER LIFE! Which, in retrospect, might  
not really be that long.. She shivered at the thought.

Ukyo felt Akane shiver. "A-chan?"

"Just a bad thought." Akane answered. She snuggled closer to  
the brunette and buried her face into the crook of Ukyo's  
neck.

Ukyo moved her hand back to Akane's back and started rubbing  
it soothingly.

Akane smiled a bit at the tender gesture. "You know," she  
said, her voice muffled by Ukyo's shoulder. "I really feel  
sorry for whoever it is that actually DOES marry Ranma. She's in for one heck of a ride." She smiled a little more and this time it was more humorous.

Ukyo chuckled. "How true that is," She agreed. "I'm just  
glad she's not going to be me, anymore." Ukyo gave a wry  
grin.

Akane pushed herself up on her elbow. She grinned down at  
Ukyo. "I'm glad you aren't either, cuz if you were, I  
couldn't do this.." And she kissed the young chef real good.

"Mmmmm" Ukyo reacted immediately by kissing back. She pulled

Akane down on top of her as she intensified the kiss,  
wanting more.

"MmMmM" Akane enjoyed the nice electric sensation that shot  
through her at Ukyo responsiveness. She met the brunette's  
intensity and soon their fatigue seemed to disappear, replaced by the  
eagerness.

Ukyo's lips soon felt like exploring and moved from Akane's  
lips to the rest of her features. The chef's hands meanwhile  
started roaming around the rest of the dark haired girl's body..

Due to the graphic nature of the following scene, it was  
editorially cut from this fanfic. We apologize to all the  
disappointed fanboys who are reading this solely for the lime content.  


After a long and passionately hot moment, Akane and Ukyo  
ended up in another tangle on Ukyo's bed. Both were worn  
out, again.

"Whew, that was good!" Ukyo grinned, happily. "Ranma doesn't  
know what he's missing! Wow.."

Akane laughed breathily. "You weren't so bad yourself." She  
grinned, poking Ukyo in the side.

Ukyo laughed as well. "If you say so." She grinned. "Well..  
Sham-chan is usually the more aggressive one, I was just  
trying to make up for her absence."

Akane sat up where she had been lying with her legs on either  
side of Ukyo's waist. "Did good." She grinned. "If I had  
more energy, I'd take a turn." She then smooched Ukyo on the nose.

Laughing, Ukyo pulled Akane back down to her. "Next time"  
she said, kissing the other girl on the forehead.

"It's a promise." Akane grinned as she relaxed on top of her  
lover, her head cradled gently in the crook of Ukyo's neck  
and shoulder.

"Good." said Ukyo.

Akane smiled.

Akane lifted her head. "You don't regret it do you?"

Ukyo hugged Akane reassuringly. "Never DREAMED something like this would happen.. and I don't regret a moment  
of it." Ukyo smiled kissing Akane on the top of her  
head. "I haven't had any daydream involving Ranma forever." The chef grinned.

The short haired girl laughed. "Well THAT'S good." She  
grinned. "Don't want MY Ukyo having daydreams about some GUY. Especially when she has ME." She smooched Ukyo's nose and grinned some more.

Ukyo laughed. "What? Are you jealous?" she asked in a  
teasing manner.

"Maybe." Akane grinned.

Ukyo laughed again. "But what if I start daydreaming about  
Shampoo?" Ukyo grinned, now being particularly playful.

"Oh, well that's different." Akane answered, waving one  
hand dismissively.

She was still grinning.

"Oh? How so?" Ukyo asked, then decided to flip them both  
over so she was now on top of the cute short haired girl.

Akane laughed, now finding herself staring up at the  
brunette chef. "Well  
mostly it has to do with the fact that I particularly like  
her." She shook a finger. "BUT you gotta promise that when you do, I'M in it too, or that you tell me about it." She waggled her eyebrows  
suggestively. 

"But of course." Ukyo grinned seductively back. "Whoever  
said that "Two is company, Three is crowd,' didn't know what he was talking about." She  
then leaned down for another kiss.

And Akane pushed herself up to meet Ukyo's lips in a  
tender, passionate kiss. If they had more energy it probably would've led to more, but not even martial artists could do such a quick recovery from THAT much of a power drain.

Well anyway, while the two of them kept making out,  
poor lil' Shampoo was stuck at the Cat Café, waiting tables and fending off Mousse who was STILL trying to win her favor.

"How many times I tell you, Stupid Mousse, I'm already  
happily dating."

"B-but Shampoo! I LOVE you!" Mousse exclaimed as he nuzzled  
a potted plant. "Shampoo, when did you get so leafy?"

Shampoo bopped Mousse on the back of his little blind head.  
"Stupid." She sighed. "You declare your love for me all you like, but  
that no change my sexual orientation."

"We'll see about that!" Mousse declared, finally releasing  
the poor plant he'd been suggestively fondling. "One of these days Shampoo, I swear I'll make you mine!" Lightening flashed dramatically in the background. "I just have to get rid of Akane Tendo and Ukyo Kuonji to do it."

Before Mousse could even start his evil laughter (tm)  
Shampoo had walloped him over the head with one of her bombori. "You do, and I Kill you." She said, looking like she meant it.

"But Shampoo-!" Mousse whined, but he was cut off by the  
cooking pot that ricocheted off his face.

"Get back to work you lazy layabout!" Cologne yelled from  
the kitchen.

"Dried up monkey." the myopic young man mumbled under his  
breath as he went back to bussing tables.

Another cooking utensil hit him in the back of the head.

"I heard that," Cologne muttered.

Mousse continued grumbling as Shampoo bounced to her great  
grandmother's side.  
"Great Grandmother, it's almost time for closing, is it okay  
if I go now, Akane and Ukyo are waiting for me." Shampoo then gave the old woman her best pleading look.

"I'm sorry, Shampoo, but you need to stay here and help Mousse  
close up." Cologne replied, puffing on her pipe. "You haven't been  
spending enough time here lately."

Shampoo sighed. "Yes, Great-Grandmother," Gloomily, she went  
back to work, feeling like she had a bad case of Akane and Ukyo withdrawal.

Fortunately for the amazon beauty, Cologne wasn't all bad.  
"Don't worry, Granddaughter, you may see them tonight." she told Shampoo, smiling slightly. Teens always were so insatiable. "You may even stay the night if you like."

Cologne's words had the desired effect on the girl. Shampoo  
whooped for joy, thanked her great-grandmother, then went back to  
cleaning up the restaurant with renewed vigor.

"Just remember to be back early tomorrow so we can be ready  
for the morning customers!" the old woman called to her exuberant  
granddaughter.

"Okay, Great-Grandmother" Shampoo bowed, still happy-like.

Mousse just kept grumbling.

Shampoo ignored him.

A few hours later, and several beatings to Mousse's cranium,  
Shampoo was riding her bike at roughly Mach 1 toward Ukyo's restaurant.

By the time she got there, she found Akane and Ukyo asleep  
in Ukyo's bed. Ukyo had her arms wrapped protectively around the slightly smaller girl.

Shampoo just stood there, watching the two girls as they  
slept. She was also blatantly admiring them, though a part of her was sad to have missed whatever had worn them out.

Well, another part said to her, you'll just have to make up  
for that, won't you? She smiled at that thought and moved over to sit on the bed. She reached a hand out and touched the hair on both of their heads. Then, leaning down, she gently kissed the pair of girls on the forehead.

She then stood up, and unbuttoned her Chinese dress, letting  
it fall to the floor, leaving her butt naked. (Amazons don't believe in  
undergarments, especially lately.)

Pulling back the sheet slightly, the amazon slipped into bed  
behind Ukyo and wrapped her own arms around the pair. Ukyo, though  
asleep, automatically moved to accommodate her.

Shampoo smiled and settled herself down for a long nap,  
though she knew that she would want some fun in the middle of the  
night. She chuckled in anticipation, then drifted off to sleep.

Later that night, just after midnight, both Shampoo and Ukyo  
suddenly awoke. They were wrapped tightly in each other's embrace, but  
something (or more precisely, someONE) was missing. The pair blinked at each other in the darkness, then slid out of bed to search for the absent member of their trio.

The search led them downstairs to Ukyo's kitchen where they  
found Akane, sitting in the glow of the refrigerator light, on a blanket, eating a large piece from the pie they had made a day or so before.

Hearing them, Akane turned around. "Oh, hi. Uhm, just having  
a midnight snack." she said with a sheepish grin on her face.

Shampoo and Ukyo couldn't help it, they burst out laughing.  
Akane just looked so cute sitting there and they just thought it was funny.

Akane grinned cutely. She had whipped cream all over her  
face.

Ukyo crouched down next to her and kissed her. When she  
pulled back it was obvious she had some of the whipped cream on her face now.

Shampoo laughed, then bent down to get her kiss from Akane.  
She too ended up with some whipped creme.

Akane looked a little loopy and she wore a goofy grin.  
Getting French kissed twice in a row, in the middle of the night, with whipped cream had that effect on her.

"Think we overloaded her senses?" Shampoo asked Ukyo. Both  
girls wore a whipped cream covered smile.

"Not yet." Akane grinned.

"Darn." Ukyo said, then she pounced on Akane to start  
overloading the girl's senses.

Shampoo reached for the whipped cream. She then made sure to  
use it the 'proper' way.

The pie was forgotten after that, for a couple hours  
anyway, and now the kitchen was filled with moaning and the distinctive sounds of a whipped cream can.

Good thing Ukyo had stocked up.  
The next day, Akane slurped up the ramen from her bowl as she sat in a  
secluded booth in the Cat Café with Ukyo. From where they were sitting,  
they could watch Shampoo go about her waitressing duties, but were still slightly apart from most of the other patrons of the restaurant.

Under the table, Akane's bare toes rubbed up Ukyo's well  
toned and muscled calf..

That was why Ukyo wore a funny grin on her face.

And why Shampoo kept looking over at them with a  
combination of longing  
and amusement.

She did manage to find a number of excuses to go over there  
though, and steal a kiss or two.

Ukyo and Akane also tried to help out with that as best  
they could by frequently making trips to the bathroom where they'd abduct the amazon along the way.

Their favorite though, was hiding in various places about  
the restaurant, then jumping out, grabbing Shampoo and pulling her into  
their hiding spot for some smooches. G Or, depending on the spot, maybe even a good ol' fashioned quickie.

Shikoku: And somehow they never got caught.

Steel: It was cuz they were so good. They'd had three months  
of practice after all, and they only seemed to get better.

Shikoku: They were proud of that fact, too.

Steel: They certainly were. Nothing like mixing martial  
arts practice with 'recreational activity'.

Shikoku: They were experts at it by now.

Steel: And still enjoyed every minute of it.

There was just one small problem.. Akane and Ukyo were so  
eager to sit in the back of the Cat Café, they didn't notice that at a  
table on the other side of the room, but also at the back of the restaurant sat Nabiki Tendo.

The middle Tendo sister was quite surprised at Akane's  
barely concealed behavior. Although, she mused, this WOULD explain Akane's adamant claims to hating boys..

Nabiki smiled cat-like as she started thinking of the other  
weird behavior patterns she had noted in her sister lately. They were  
starting to make sense.

Perhaps she could use this to her advantage.. She reached  
into her purse and pulled out her camera..

The three girls never realised they were the subjects of a  
photo-shoot.

To Be Continued...

What will Nabiki DO with those photos?  
Whatever happened to decrepit Ranma?  
And Will Mousse ever get a date from Shampoo?  
Find out next time in WR11

P.S. Chracter owned by Rumiko Takahashi. Please don't kill  
us! .'


	11. WR11: Ranma Finally Confronts Akane

_Heya, recent events inspired Steel and me to finish writing Chapter 11 of WR. Hope you like it. This is a special chapter because we're finally getting serious and wrapping things up.. The next few chapters will be the climax before we reach the end..Yes, an ending is in sight: )_

"Without Ranma"

Part Eleven

By

Shikoku and Steel

Ranma was in the lowest slump of his life.. Completely by coincidence, so

were Ryoga and Mousse. I guess that's why the three of them were at a tavern

drinking their troubles away.

"Gimme a'other un'.." Ranma slurred, holding up his mug for a refill.

"Th' same fer me.." Ryoga concurred. Mousse was still nursing the drink

he already had.

All three looked horrible.

The bartender, who was a spiky-haired woman dressed in an old fashioned

bartender uniform, looked at them with concern on her face. Having spent

years as a bartender (though technically, she was barely even old enough

to drink herself), she could tell the difference between drinking for pleasure

and drinking to forget, and these three fellows REALLY wanted to forget

something.

"Are ya sure ya wanna do that?" She asked, with her Brooklyn accent. "Ya

already had four drinks. The rate yuir goin', ya'll will really regret it

in the mornin'"

Ranma snorted. "Fill're up!" he ordered in a drunken manner, slamming his

mug onto the bar. He then reached past Ryoga, grabbed up a handful of free

bar nuts, then stuffed a brunch into his mouth.

"Hey-hic-ey!" Ryoga protested. "Thossse're MY nuts!" He leaned over Ranma

and tried to get the nuts back from the pigtailed boy's grasp. Saotome gave

him a shove and he fell off his stool onto his back.

"Owe." said the Lost Boy, now laid out on his back. The other two boys didn't

respond. Ranma was already grabbing another handful of nuts, and Mousse

laid his head on the table.

The bartender shook her head and started cleaning a mug. She figured they'd

learn the hard way. But she was curious, what was so bad that three obviously

healthy, young men were driven to drinking like this? She decided to ask

them in the morning after they passed out on her floor.

She looked down at Ryoga. It seemed she might not have long to wait, he

was already out cold. And Mousse didn't look far behind.

"Hope whatever reason they're drinking's worth it." she said, leaving them

to fill another order.

Mousse finally passed out on the bar.

Ranma scoffed at the two boys. "Heh.. can't hold thur liq- hic- liq- hic-

beer." He then burped loudly and took what was left of Mousse's drink. He

took one sip and finally passed out.

The bartender came back to find all three unconscious. "Good grief." she

muttered. They'd only had one drink each.

"Amateurs," she sighed.

"BUUUUR-RRP!" said Ranma in his sleep.

The bartender stuck out her tongue in disgust, before she started dragging

the three passed out boys to the side of the bar where all her other unconscious

guests were lying. "I really need ta start charging extra for the sleeping

space." she muttered.

After she'd dropped Mousse down on the other two, she set about making a

sign that stated exactly that. She put it in the front window where it could

be easily seen.

And believe it or not, people actually paid for the extra benefit.

The bartender certainly enjoyed the bonus profits.

Ukyo pulled out the chocolate syrup and carefully poured it out, while Shampoo

handled the whipped creme, which was her specialty.

They piled the stuff high on top of the chocolate, strawberry and mint chocolate

chip ice cream they already had. A cherry on top completed it.

Akane grinned. "Are you quite finished now?" she asked the other two. "I'm

getting really cold and it's starting to melt."

"I think it's done," grinned Ukyo. "What do you think, Shamps?"

"Mmhmm" the purple haired amazon nodded. "Looks good enough to eat."

With a slightly evil glint her in her eyes, Ukyo said: "Well, let's dig

in then!" and she lowered her hot lips to the melting ice cream and the

cold skin beneath.

Under the chilly confection, Akane gasped at the feeling of Ukyo's lips

and tongue and shivered slightly. She smiled widely, this was gunna be fun.

Soon, Shampoo's lips joined Ukyo's.

Akane gasped again and arched upwards towards their hungry mouths. Her lips

parted as her breathing sped up.

"Mmmmmmmm is very good." said Shampoo licking her lips. "And the ice cream

isn't bad, either."

Ukyo laughed. "How right you are." She picked up the cherry with her teeth

and offered it to Shampoo. She grinned cutely at the amazon around the small

fruit.

Shampoo laughed and took the fruit from Ukyo's mouth, letting their lips

and tongues connect in the process.

Ukyo "MmmmMMmmM"ed low in her throat, enjoying the taste of the cherry AND

of Shampoo.

"Hey!" Akane complained. "What about me?" She was seriously pouting here.

"What are you complaining about?" Ukyo asked, grinning. "You're covered

with ice cream."

"I know! I'm cold and no one's warming me up!" Akane said, her lower lip

sticking out in a cute pout.

"Oooooh, poor baby," said Shampoo looking sympathetic. "We make it all better."

she reassured the girl, by licking some of the icecream off...

Akane snorted. "About time-" Her words were cut off when Ukyo's lips joined

Shampoo's in sloooooooooooowly licking away the ice cream. Another gasp

escaped her throat.

Suddenly the tape stopped and rewound, showing Ukyo and Shampoo licking

but the ice cream kept reappearing, until Akane was once again covered,

and Shampoo and Ukyo were giving her hungry looks.

"Hey!" Akane complained from the foot of the bed. "It was just getting to

the good part!"

"Yeah!" both Ukyo and Shampoo chimed in, glaring at Nabiki.

The eldest Tendo there was blushing badly. "Well excuse me, but I'm NOT

used to seeing my little sister doing.. well.. THAT." she said, waving at

the tv screen.

Akane rolled her eyes. "C'mon Nabiki, I'm not THAT little any more."

Ukyo piped up. "Yeah Nabs, she's a WOMAN now." The brunette grinned at her

short haired lover.

"A Very Good tasting one, at that." Shampoo couldn't help but add.

Akane burst out laughing. Nabiki looked shellshocked.

Nabiki cleared her throat, trying to regain control over herself. "Well,

I think that after some editing, this tape will do nicely to suit my purposes.."

"Do you really think no one will be able to tell that's us with those fake

wigs and cheesy masks?" Ukyo asked uncertainly.

Nabiki gave her a look. "Do you know what kind of morons actually buy these

things from me? They are all like Kuno.. Actually most of them are BOUGHT

by Kuno.."

Akane stuck out her tongue. "Eeww.." she stated.

Ukyo shook her head. "I still can't believe guys actually get off from watching

ftapes like this." She stuck out her tongue too.

"Well, what do you expect?" Nabiki shrugged. "They're guys."

They all had a good laugh at that one.

Nabiki smiled. "This tape will be worth quite a sum of yen." she said happily.

"How long do we have to do this before you stop blackmailing us?" Ukyo finally

asked.

The other girls looked uncomfortable as Nabiki considered her answer.

The phone rang before the elder Tendo sister could answer. Not showing how

happy she felt about being interrupted, Nabiki calmly answered the phone.

Boy was Ranma surprised to hear her voice. "Nabiki? What're you doing at

the Ucchan?" he asked, confused.

"I've joined her harem." Nabiki answered wryly, though she was just joking.

There was a loud 'THUD!' as Ranma hit the floor and the phone fell next

him. Nabiki could hear Kasumi saying: "Oh my! Ranma, what happened?" and

the pig-tailed boy's reply of "Uhhhh..."

The other girls just started laughing, while Nabiki said in the same dry

voice, but now with a hint of a smirk on her face. "Ranma? Still there?

That was a joke."

She heard Ranma groan again. "Uuhhh.. That was NOT funny Nabiki." he growled, clearly not amused by the elder teen's sense of humor.

"Come on Ranma, like Ukyo'd have a harem..." Nabiki replied giving an evil

grin towards said okonomiyaki chef.

The brunette grinned and hugged both Akane and Shampoo.

Rannma blinked on the other end. "Uhm.. right.." he said, not sounding convinced.

"Look, is Akane there? I gotta talk to her."

"Alright, Ranma. Here's your little fiancee." Nabiki then gave the phone

to said girl.

Akane blinked and took the receiver. "What do you want, Ranma?" she asked,

sounding just the slightest bit annoyed.

"We GOTTA talk Akane!" Ranma told her urgently. His voice was low, as if

he didn't want to be overheard. Whether it was by people on his end or hers,

Akane couldn't be sure.

"About what, Ranma?" Akane deadpanned.

"About.. about... well, about you 'n' Ucchan 'n' Shampoo." he answered uncomfortably.

"Why?"

Ranma blinked. "Whaddya mean WHY?" he asked, confused. This wasn't going

how he planned.

Akane sighed, but tried to be patient. "I thought we had already discussed

all that we need to, Ranma."

There was silence as Ranma fidgeted on the other end of the line. "Yeah..

well... I kinda... wanted to talk to ya... alone.. You know.. without Ucchan

and Shampoo..." he said.

Akane was finally taken by surprise. "You want to talk to me alone?"

The others blinked then gathered around to try to listen, as well. They

looked a bit worried, now.

"Well... yeah.." Ranma said, nodding a bit.

Akane wasn't sure what to do. What Ranma was asking wasn't that much, and

he was asking her nice.. But she was scared of what would happen if she

met with him alone..

Ukyo seemed to be reading her mind. "Sham-chan and I could go along and

just not let Ranma know." said the brunette.

Akane nodded. "Alright, Ranma." she finally said. "I'll meet with you."

Ranma grinned. "Meet me under the bridge by the canal in fifteen minutes."

he said, and abruptly hung up.

Akane was slower hanging up. She still looked apprehensive..

Ukyo hugged her from side and Shampoo from the other.

"Don't worry, we'll be right there Love." Ukyo whispered into Akane's ear. "We won't let anything happen." Shampoo nodded her agreement.

Akane nodded, but she still seemed a bit unsure..

Nabiki meanwhile, had a sly smile on her face. She wondered if Akane was

starting to falter from her sudden lesbianism.. She decided she wanted to

go see Ranma's confrontation with her, too.

Ranma sat under the bridge, waiting for Akane in his girl form. Damn sudden

down pours. Oh well, he mused to himself in soprano, maybe Akane would feel

more comfortable with him like this, considering her.. condition.

She snorted to herself, remembering how Akane had liked her better as a

girl, before finding out the hard way, that she was really a guy.

"No wonder she was always claiming she hated boys." Ranma-chan muttered,

hugging her knees.

It was weird, but Ranma-chan was starting to realize that Akane wanting

to be with Ukyo or Shampoo wasn't as weird anymore. She wondered if she

was getting used to the idea, or if she was just starting to remember all

the signs Akane had shown that she might have leaned that way..

Either way, the redhead thought bitterly, it was obvious Akane didn't want

HIM any more. Ranma-chan was surprised at how much that thought hurt. But

she was even more upset with herself, because she was starting to get used

to it.

With the dark cloud that hung over her head, Ranma-chan almost didn't notice

Akane walking down the bank toward her.

Akane stopped when she saw that it wasn't male Ranma that was waiting for

her, but female Ranma instead. She hadn't been expecting that. She wondered

if he was up to something..

Ranma-chan looked up at the dark-haired girl. "Hey, Akane." she said in greeting.

Up on the bridge, Ukyo and Shampoo were silently watching.

"I don't like this.." said Shampoo, looking worriedly down at Akane and

Ranma-chan.

"Don't worry, we'll rescue her if it gets bad." Ukyo said, giving the amazon

a reassuring nuzzle.

Shampoo nuzzled back. "Is not that I worried about.."

Ukyo blinked. "Then what?" she asked, confused.

Shampoo sighed. "I afraid Akane having second thoughts, and she wavering

back to Ranma.."

Ukyo looked at where she could see Akane's wary face as the girl carefully

regarded Saotome. "I dunno.." she said. "She doesn't seem to have that look

in her eyes.."

"Is just feeling I got.." replied Shampoo.

"We'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen." Ukyo told her.

Shampoo nodded. She hoped Ukyo was right..

Meanwhile, back under the bridge...

"So what do you want Ranma?" Akane asked.

Ranma-chan shrugged. "Just wanna talk." she said, looking out over the river.

"Okay, so talk then." Akane said, warily.

"At least sit down first." Ranma-chan said.

"Alright." Akane sighed and did as the red-head asked.

There was a long pause before Ranma-chan finally sighed. "Why?" she asked, looking at Akane.

Akane just looked back at her.

"Why did you choose them over me?"

Akane was about to make a smart-alec retort, but then she realized that Ranma actually looked hurt. She softened and decided to answer truthfully. "Because they're straightforward about their feelings and actually show me that they love me. They're nice to me ALL the time, and they respect me." She didn't have to add "unlike you".

"But Akane! Don't'cha know I was just tryin' ta make ya a better fighter?" Ranma-chan asked. Surely Akane had realized that.

Akane just blinked at him. "You were picking on me cause you wanted me to be a better fighter? Ranma! If you wanted me to be a better fighter you should have encouraged me and shown me how, not put me down or not fight back when we sparred. I wasn't learning anything from you. I thought you hated me..."

Ranma-chan looked down at her knees. "Was just doin' it like Pop taught me.."

Akane softened a bit. "Ranma, I hate to say this, but your father has the social skills of a rock."

Ranma-chan's grin was wry. "Tell me about it."

"So he isn't exactly the best role model of how to treat somebody you care about." Akane continued.

"Only one I know." Ranma-chan shrugged.

Akane didn't know what to say to that, so she didn't say anything at all. Blaming Gennma for everything was a cop out, anyway. 

Ranma-chan sighed.

Akane glanced over at her. "What are you thinking?" she asked.

"We're never going to be together, are we?" Ranma-chan finally asked. She was actually being truly honest for once.

Akane blinked, again, and she felt her heart speed up a beat. "Are.. are you implying that you want us to be?" she hesitantly asked.

Ranma-chan shrugged. "Always kinda thought we would be." She that so quietly that Akane almost didn't hear her.

"You did?"

"Well, yeah."

Akane nodded, thoughtfully.

The redhead just shrugged again and hugged her knees tighter.

"So this's it then huh?" Ranma-chan asked unexpectedly. "Well I'm not giving up with out a fight!" She stood and looked down at Akane. "Akane Tendo, I won't rest until I make you mine!" she declared, her confidence swirling around her.

And with that, she turned and determinedly strode off to prepare for the battle that was love.

Akane just blinked. "Okay.."

After the redhead was out of sight, Shampoo and Ukyo dropped to the ground from where they'd been watching on the bridge. "What was THAT about?" Ukyo asked, looking as confused as Akane.

"He really thought that we were going to end up together.." Akane mumbled.

Ukyo blinked. "Really? Wow.."

Shampoo however looked concerned. "What you say to that, A-chan?" She sometimes reverted back to bad Japanese when she was nervous or upset.

Akane sighed. "I really don't know guys.." she said, hugging herself. "I honestly always thought he hated me.."

Ukyo hugged the short-haired girl. "Oh comeon, Akane. Even Shampoo and I knew that he never really hated you back then.."

Akane merely sighed.

"What you thinking, Akane?" Shampoo asked joining in the hug.

"I guess I'm just dumb then." Akane muttered, her head bent so her eyes were in shadows.

"Dumb? Where did ya get THAT idea?" Ukyo said, looking at Akane like she was crazy.

Akane shrugged. "Both you AND Sham-chan knew he really loved me, so I MUST be dumb."

"You not stupid, Akane. Sometimes the hardest things to see are those that are right in front of you."

The short haired girl merely nodded.

Ukyo and Shampoo passed a look over Akane's head. Both sets of eyes were worried.

Kasumi hummed to herself as she walked down the hallway. Today, she was dusting the house, while the laundry dried outside. Ah, yes, it was a good day.

The house was unusually quiet this afternoon, her father and Mr. Saotome being out with Grandfather Happosai, Nabiki with friends and both Ranma and Akane gone. So the eldest Tendo daughter was enjoying this rare moment of peace. Not that she didn't also enjoy the houses rowdy days when all of Akane and Ranma's friends came over, Kasumi did so enjoy having company to serve tea and her cookies. But she liked the quiet days too, when she could just relax and take care of the house without interruption.

"Hmmm.. which room to dust next" she thought. "I've already dusted Father's and the Saotome's."

Going on down the line, the next was Akane's room, and Kasumi had no qualms about entering when Akane wasn't home, since she sometimes had to to put her youngest sister's laundry away. So she turned the handle and stepped past the wooden duck sign on the door.

Kasumi noted that Akane's room was neat and clean as usual. The short-haired girl's older sister smiled, as Kasumi dusted her picture frames, much having pictures of their family and friends. She hummed softly to herself, a tune her mother had taught her as a child, as she glanced over the pictures and other knick-knacks Akane had accumulated. Her eyes then fell upon this weird long rubber thing. She looked at it curiously, but paid it no mind and kept dusting, until she accidentally knocked one of Akane's pictures onto the floor.

"Oops!" Bending down, she picked up the frame and checked to make sure it wasn't broken. But something else caught her eye instead. It was what the picture was of, that had caught her attention.

"Oh, my," Kasumi gasped softly as she recognized the three figures pictured in the..uncomprimising position on Akane's bed. Her legs gave out beneath her and dropped to sit on the edge of Akane's bed, one hand over her mouth.

There was no denying what the picture was about even though her mind was telling her that it just couldn't be. Akane loved Ranma!

Didn't she?

Kasumi stood up and openly began snooping, which she normally wouldn't do, but this was serious.

Finally, her search was fruitful. Kasumi found a video tape hidden in Akane's underwear drawer. Intuition told her that something interesting was going to be on this tape.

That and it was labled: 'Threesome' in Nabiki's handwritting.

Anyway, holding her breath, Kasumi slipped the tape into Akane's new TV/VCR. She then hit 'Play'.

She then watched the most sickest, dirtiest, and raunchiest video, which made Kasumi's pure clean little psyche curl up and die.

She couldn't believe her little sister was one of the main stars.

She also couldn't believe she was feeling turned on.

Quickly rewinding the tape, she put it back in Akane's drawer and hurried out of the room. She suddenly had an urge to see Tofu for a... checkup..Yeah, that's it..

Hurriedly, she left the Tendo residence and headed for the clinic, deciding she'll figure out what she was going to do about her new knowledge of Akane's after school antics later.

Right now she needed to.. deal, with her own problems..

To Be Continued...

Will Ranma keep his vow and win Akane back? Will Akane be won back? Where did Nabiki go during the talk at the bridge, and wonder what Kasumi has in mind for Dr. Tofu..? Find out next time in WIthout Ranma, Part 12.

Character belong to Rumiko Takahashi

A/N:

Steel: Well, we certainly have some psychotic readers, what do you think, Shiko-chan: D

Shikoku: Very true. I had no idea Ranma fans were so touchy. But I guess I missed the newsletter that said Ranma Saotome was a sacred god that can't be poked fun at.

Steel: They most definitely take their comedy VERY seriously, ne? Which is what Ranma 1/2 IS, by the way. A COMEDY! And THAT is Canon. G 

Shikoku: I think we're dealing with the guys that sit around all day and have serious debates that basically nitpick the series to death... I bet Rumiko Takahashi has better things to do. When somebody once asked her if Ranma-chan ever gets a period, she said somebody out there is thinking too much.

Steel: nods sagely And do you think Soun would REALLY make his FAVORITE daughter commit seppuku? Soun! The man who CRIES when Akane goes to hot springs with her FRIENDS!

Shikoku: We could probably bring up lots of other examples, but there really isn't a point. The point is: You guys are all taking "Without Ranma" far more seriously, than we ever did writing it.

Steel: And the conclusions you come up with for it are completely RIDICULOUS! Not to mention things that were NEVER explained in the manga, i.e. Ukyo's past. Criticize if you want, but don't make things up just because you're mad.

Shikoku: But we do thank you guys. We've started this story about six years ago, and left it unfinished because we moved on to other things. This was basically the last chapter.

Steel: Thanks to all our detractors, we're determined to finish it now. If only to piss you off. Congrats:D


	12. WR12: Ukyo and Shampoo Confront Akane

A/N: And Finally, the new stuff…. Characters created by Rumiko Takahashi. Enjoy.

Without Ranma:

Part 12

By Shikoku and Steel

Ukyo and Shampoo were worried about Akane.

"I worried about Akane." Shampoo said to Ukyo during a lull in the Nekohanten's customers. Said Tendo was in the back, washing dishes with Mousse in duck form.

"Me, too.." Ukyo admitted. "I mean, her mind is even elsewhere while we're playing.. This is bad.."

Shampoo nodded sagely. "You think we need talk to her?"

"Again?"

"What you think we should do then?" Shampoo asked. "Kill Ranma before Akane goes back to him?"

Ukyo blinked. "Uhh... I think that's a bit harsh, Sugar.."

Shampoo shrugged. "Sorry, old Amazon habit. "Obstacles are for killing"." she recited. "And all that rot."

"Well, you're not in China any more, hon." Ukyo pointed out. "Killing like that is sort of

Shampoo pouted. "Can we do something else conniving and clichéd like Passion Powder?"

"And who would we use it on?"

Shampoo thought about it for a second. "How about female Ranma.. then we can all live happy ever after."

"Bleah.." Ukyo made a face. "As cute as he is in female form, Ranma-chan is STILL a guy." She rolled her eyes. "Just ask him."

"Can turn him permanently into a girl" Shampoo then pulled out that nifty bucket thingie that was so heavily used in the Herb storyline.

Ukyo's jaw dropped. "Where the heck did you get THAT?"

"Plothole in the story." Shampoo said, "Or you can say it's our Deus ex Machina."

The okonomiyaki chef sighed, sweatdropping. "Put that thing back where you got it." she told the Amazon. "We are NOT letting Ranma join us! The whole point of this story was to EXCLUDE him, remember?"

Shampoo pouted again. "I thought the whole point of the story was to end up in one of those giant orgies where everyone gets involved in the end."

"Eeeewww! No!" Ukyo looked positively repulsed.

"What?"

"A threesome is one thing, but I'm NOT going to be in an ORGY!" The brunette seemed to be turning green. "Especially with some of the people around HERE.. Eeww.."

"Okay," Shampoo sighed. "There goes most of the readers who are only reading this story hoping it will come to that."

"Eh, screw them anyway. This wasn't actually meant to be read by anyone in the first place, it was only meant for archival purposes." Ukyo snorted. "But anyway, enough of breaking the fourth wall, back to Akane."

"Well, you shot down my ideas, I don't know what to do."

Ukyo thought for several minutes. "Well... why don't we just move? You know, take her away from Ranma? That way she'll forget about him.."

Shampoo brightened up. "I know we go back to Amazon village, land of lesbians!"

A pair of brunette eyebrows furrowed together. "But I thought you couldn't go back unless you married Ranma.."

Shampoo grinned. "If I bring back two powerful female warriors, I'd be forgiven. Warriors have a lot more worth than simple Breeders like Ranma."

"Breeders?"

"That's what Ranma was for. We just wanted his sperm, not him exactly." She could have just had him masturbate into a bottle, or something if she really had to, but what was the fun in that for her?

"Ick.. but ok then..." Ukyo paused, thinking. "I really don't have much of a home to go to, actually.. It was just me and Dad, and I haven't seen him since I left to kill Ranma.."

"Won't they miss you?"

Ukyo looked at the purple haired girl curiously. "They who?"

(Scratch that, forgot the story made no mention of a clan for Ukyo, and that it was pretty much her own idea to give up her womanhood and go after Ranma for revenge.)

"Won't HE miss you?" Shampoo corrected herself.

Ukyo shook her head. "I already wrote Dad a long time ago that I could never kill Ranma, so he's not expecting that any more. Really all he wants for me now is to be happy. I don't think he particularly cares where I'm living... and I can always visit.."

"Won't he excommunicate you from your clan for forsaking your duty and becoming a lesbian?"

"What clan?"

"Didn't think you really had one, but thought I'd ask." Shampoo shrugged.

"I already said it was just me and Dad." Ukyo pointed out.

"Just making sure "blooded Ranma Guy" got that," Shampoo said.

"Eh, we also never cared about duty at any point in this story, but still some people felt the need to point it out." Might as well cover the "Duty Guy", too, though that was a good point.

Shampoo merely rolled her eyes. "Anyway, let's go make suggestion to Akane!" She grinned happily.

So they went into the backroom and dragged Akane away from the dishes and into the alley in the back of the Nekohanten.

"Hey! What's going on?" Akane asked, surprised and still covered with suds up to her elbows.

"We need to talk" Shampoo said.

"Ok." Akane was giving them both confused looks. Usually they dragged her to the upstairs apartment. "You're not breaking up with me are you?" She asked, not like the "we need to talk' lines.

The pair blinked in unison. "What? Of course not!" Ukyo stated, surprised Akane would even think that. "Just the opposite actually."

"The opposite?"

"We wondering if you move with us to Amazon village." Shampoo looked hopeful.

Akane gaped at her. "The Amazon village? The one in China?"

"Do you know of another one?"

"But.,. but I can't leave Nerima.. I grew up here! All my family is here!"

"There some readers think that you family make you commit seppuku if you stay." Shampoo stated.

Akane gave her a "are you crazy?" look. "We're not the Saotomes. Besides, Dad gets so emotional over me just going away with friends, you really think he'd make me kill myself?" she asked with one eyebrow raised. "Of course, he'd probably react the same way if I told him I was moving..." She pondered this.

"I thought Japanese society all about honor, and putting duty before personal desires." Shampoo said, glad that the readers were giving her such good material to work with.

"Maybe in Real Life, but how often are stories based on Real Life?" Ukyo asked with a slight smirk.

"Besides the writers are American and not exactly bothering to be authentically Japanese." Akane added for good measure.

Ukyo continued. "Besides, are we really so archaic a society that we'd kill our loved ones for falling for someone out of the norm?" It was rhetoric. "I thought this was the modern age, not the feudal era."

"Eh, being gay's still frowned upon, but if Dad really made me commit seppuku, it wouldn't be for forsaking my family duty by not marrying Ranma. Remember there are two other Tendo sisters that can easily do the job instead."

"You really Nabiki or Kasumi even WANT him?" Shampoo asked incredulously.

"No, but it's their fault I got the job in the first place. Well, this time I say 'no', and I mean it."

Shampoo and Ukyo beamed. Their Akane hadn't decided to abandon them after all! Yay!

She seemed surprised when they both glomped her at once. "Huh? What was that for?" She asked, glomping back.

"You no abandon us!" Shampoo cheered, rubbing herself enthusiastically against her short haired lover.

"For Ranma, she means" Ukyo explained after Akane gave her a confused look.

"Bleah! Why would I leave you guys for THAT hentai?"

"But what were you so introspective about?" Shampoo asked.

Shampoo was making amazing strides with her pronunciations. "You mean after the whole bridge thing?" Akane asked. "I was just surprised is all. But that doesn't mean my feelings for you guys have changed any. Ranma's still just as much of a jerk now as he ever was, and that's a real put-off for me. I need to be told, up front how someone feels for me. And it didn't seem like he could do that. Sure he could blame his dad all he wanted, but that doesn't change the fact that HE personally never attempted to change. It was like he was blind to the fact that his insults were hurting me." She shook her head. "I just couldn't keep putting up with that."

Akane took a deep breath. She was going to give a speech that was the closest to a moral that this story would ever get. "It's like this: We were never the perfect model for a healthy relationship. Ranma might have loved me deep down inside, but he had a lousy way of showing it. Love is all about actions, the way he treats me should reflect his feelings. A man can spout off how much he loves you till his voice grows hoarse, but if he treats ya like crap, then all his words are lies. Those little romantic moments we did share doesn't hold up to the way we interact during day-to-day life.

And it's not all Ranma's fault, either. I never really treated him like I loved him either. Basically I never fully trusted him, and neither of us knew how to talk to each other. If there is no trust, and no capability of communication, then the relationship will never last.

To be honest, I think I was actually falling out of love with him after the failed wedding. No one knew this, but I had asked him if he really loved me. Point blank. And he denied it. He lied to my face. Just like always. I don't think he knew that I had heard him when he told me he loved me when I was dying because of Saffron, but when I asked him again and he rejected me, I really think that was the day that the part of me that really loved him, started to die. I know I've had my fair share of lies to him when it came to my feelings, but no more. The next time I see him, I breaking it off. For better or worse, it's over."

"You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane" Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

To Be Continued…


	13. WR13: It Wasn't a Dream! Ending

Shikoku comes out to address their audience. She is wearing a suit of armor, because she knows half of them don't get it and want to kill her.

Steel is brandishing an evil looking sword. "Ok you readers! Listen up!"

"Because of a story of this magnetism.. Is that really a word?" she asks Steel.

"Magnetism? And yes, of course."

"Good," Shikoku looks proud of herself. "We couldn't possibly have just ONE ending to this story."

"Because we couldn't agree on only one."

"That too."

"So this chapter begins the list of every ending we could think of, in no particular order." Steel states. "Pick the one you like and for Heaven's sake, DON'T TELL US ABOUT IT! As if WE care." She rolls her eyes.

"But I like reading disgruntled Ranma fans e-mails." Shikoku whined.

Steel snorts. "Feh. Blowin' a lot of hot air.."

"It just makes my day knowing I annoyed somebody" Shikoku said, dreamily.

"You have problems."

"I know, and we're rambling again."

Steel shrugs. "Most people skip this part anyway."

"True.."

"Oh well.." Steel rests the sword on her shoulder and walks off.

"Enjoy."

-------

"You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane." Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

----------

They then beat the living shit out of him again, cause they hated when he eavesdropped on them. Defeated, he crawled back to the bar. "I hate women.." he muttered to his two companions, both of whom were suffering from hangovers but still drinking.

Ryoga pulled a barstool out for him. "Join the club, we hate women, too."

Mousse decided to let Ranma in the conversation they were having while he'd been gone. "We can't take the abuse any more!" he exclaimed to the bartender, who turned him in Ranma's direction.

"Yeah!" Ryoga agreed, "We're through with girls!"

"Nothin' but trouble!" Ranma concurred.

"They're so abusive!" Mousse added, thinking of Shampoo.

"And rude!" Ryoga was thinking of all times Ukyo had called him a jackass.

"And...Oh wait, you already said abusive.." Ranma paused. "How about... jealous?"

"Yeah!" the other two agreed. "Wait.. what? Shampoo and Ukyo aren't jealous.. Well, to YOU they are..."

"Okay.. how about easily angered?"

"Yeah!" That one they COULD agree on. All three drank to that.

"I wish there was an alternative.." Ryoga sighed, wistfully.

Mousse burped. "There is." he said. "But you (hic) you won't like it.."

"What?" Ranma and Ryoga asked all innocently.

"There's always guys." Mousse stated, waiting for their freak out.

"Guys.." Ranma repeated. His brain was having trouble working. Must be the alcohol.

"Eeewww.. Mousse... you're.. you're a.. a SICK duck.." Ryoga slurred, slowly becoming drunk once more.

"Knew you'd hate that idea." Mousse took another drink.

Both nodded sluggishly. "Guys... don't got no.. curves.." Ryoga was absently wondering why his nose wasn't bleeding.

"And they have.. other things.." Mousse added.

"Boobs." Ranma grunted, his drunkenness making him blunt.

"Yeah.. guys don't have them.." Ryoga said.

"I do." Mousse and Ryoga looked at him. "Well not right now!" Ranma gave them an indignant look. He did NOT have 'man-boobs'!

The three sighed and went back to their drinks.

"But guys do make more sense.." The other two looked at him. "Well, they do!" Ryoga said all defensively.

"You're drunk!" Ranma accused and shoved him off his stool. He fell down and took a long time to get up, again. Ranma snorted. "I'm not..! not..." Where was he going with that..? Oh yeah! "a homo!"

"Neither am I!" the others were quick to agree with him.

"But guy's WOULD be less hassle.." Mousse mused. It was common for shunned Amazon men to start that kind of relationship. "No emotional attachment."

"And they don't get emotional.." Ranma added, thoughtfully.

Ryoga finally climbed onto his stool. "Still don't got no boobs.." His alcohol consumption had fuzzied his brain enough to keep him passing out at the thought of women's breasts.

Ranma nodded sagely and nearly fell off his own stool.

"But men have manly pecs.." Mousse said.

Ryoga frowned. "Why would I like that?"

Ranma was giving Mousse an odd look. "Do YOU like that?" He asked suspiciously.

Mousse shrugged. "If you're an Amazon Male, you try to keep your options open."

"Ick.." Ranma made a face.

"Don't knock it if you haven't tried it." Mousse replied.

"He's right." Ryoga concurred with what Ranma said. Mousse shrugged again and waved for the bartender to pass him another tall one.

They sat there in silence awhile, each in his own thoughts, and deep into his drink.

Ranma couldn't stop thinking about what Mousse said. His liquor muddled mind was a jumble of thoughts and images, few of which made sense. It would take heavy liquor to make him ponder what kissing Ryoga would be like. And right now his body about 98 beer.

So he decided, what the hell, he probably won't remember this in the morning. And so, burping loudly and vulgarly (is that a word?), he wiped his chin, turned to Ryoga, grabbed the lost boy's face and planted a big, wet one on him.

"MMmphh?" said Ryoga and he fell off his stool again, taking Ranma with him. Strangely, Mousse found this exceedingly funny and fell over, laughing his head off. Ryoga struggled a bit more, but finally gave up. Stupid Ranma.. stealing his first kiss... but he might as well enjoy it.

Ranma finally him go. "Bleck.. you taste like sour beer and peanuts.."

Ryoga bopped him on the head. "Why the hell did you kiss me, then?"

Ranma shrugged and tried to climb back on his bar stool. "Seemed what Mousse was... Mousse was..." What was Mousse again? "getting at.."

Mousse thumped his glass on the table loudly, after chugging most of it down in one gulp. "My turn!"

Ranma and Ryoga looked at him confusedly.

Mousse bleary looked back at both of them, before choosing to kiss Ranma. Might as well see what all the fuss was about. "Mmmph!"

Ryoga gaped at the two of them. His muddled brain was still mildly repulsed.

But funnily enough growing interested. "Aww, knock it off!" he grumbled, swinging clumsily at them. "It's my turn!" And HE grabbed Mousse. It was a good thing he was stone cold drunk.

Mousse was happy to oblige. It had been a LONG time since he'd felt another's touch. Too long. He grabbed hold of Ryoga and crushed him in a hug.

Ryoga was crying cause nobody ever touched him like this, and now it had to be two guys. Someone was actually showing HIM, Ryoga Hibiki, AFFECTION! And Ryoga craved affection so badly, he didn't care where he got it from. Even Ranma in drag.

Ranma watched the two kiss and wondered what the hell was happening. And why he was feeling jealous. "Enough already! It's my turn" and he shoved his way in between the two of them.

The bartender, who up to this point had been watching with an off kind of morbid fascination, now seemed to realize they weren't planning to continue drinking. "Hey! Hey! Take it outside!" She'd start a tab for each of them.

So they rented a room in one of Nerima's love hotels and spent a wonderful, if strange, night.

Then they woke up in the morning.

Ranma cracked one bleary, bloodshot eye, then immediately closed it, his head suddenly assaulted by THE WORST headache he'd ever had in his LIFE!

And "Little Ranma" hurt for some reason.

Suddenly Ranma's eyes snapped open and he sprang from the bed, then dashed to the bathroom; one hand clamped over his mouth. Retching sounds were then heard.

"Quiet in there.." Ryoga grumbled from the bed that Ranma had just vacated. "Head hurts.."

Mousse rolled over and fell off the bed.

Ranma screamed. "IT WASN'T A DREAM!"

"OOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW! Ryoga and Mousse wailed, grabbing their heads in both hands.

----------

Three months later, they ended up picking out China patterns and lace curtains together.

Damn Ryoga looked good in ass-less leather chaps! And Ranma really took well to pastel fishnet tops. Walking ahead of them, Mousse carried their leashes in one hand. They passed by Akane, Ukyo, and Shampoo, who gawked at them.

"Wow! What the hell happened to those three?" Akane gaped.

"I don't know, but this is Shampoo's favorite ending!" said Shampoo.

"They DO look good in black leather.." Ukyo concurred. She then slung her arms over her lovers' shoulders as they headed back for their apartment.

The End.


	14. WR14: Blooded Warrior Ending

"You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane" Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

----------

His battle aura flaring around him, Ranma began snarling. "I've taken your abuse ever since I arrived in Nerima! Now it's PAYBACK TIME!" And he leapt at them. The girls shrieked and tried to fight back, but it was no use. I mean, Ranma defeated Saffron! Saffron!

Shikoku: Am I even spelling his name right?

Steel: Who cares?

Finally, his revenge taken, Ranma stopped and wiped his brow, looking about himself. On the ground were the limp, bloodied and broken bodies of his FORMER fianceés. He tilted back his head and laughed evilly. Finally he had gained his revenge! He was RANMA! NOBODY treats him like dirt, this is HIS series!

Suddenly his laughter was cut short by a small, wheezing voice. "This... is why I... stopped... loving you.." Akane said and then was no more.

The End.


	15. WR15: Girl Ranma Ending

You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane" Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

----------

"I heard every word." he said with a sigh. "I guess there's only one thing left to do.." The three girls stared at him, expectantly and grew more confused when he pulled out a glass of water. "Goodbye... Ranma-KUN!" he wailed dramatically, up ending it over his head and turning himself into a girl.

"Ranma-kun?" Shampoo asked.

The wet, sniveling girl nodded. "I've.. given up my male side..." She looked at them, wide-eyed and imploring.

Shampoo perked up. "Really?"

Ukyo pulled her aside. "I thought we agreed the point of this story is to be WITHOUT RANMA."

Akane walked up to Ranma-chan and pulled her into a hug. "Good for you Ranma!" Ukyo and Shampoo gaped at her. "But you still can't join us. Bye-bye!" And she turned, took hold of the chef's and Amazon's hands and skipped off, humming happily to herself.

"Damn, I should have known that wouldn't work." Ranma-chan pouted. She turned and headed for home. And a hot bath. She really couldn't live the rest of her life as a woman anyway. That would totally suck. Girls were just... too darned prissy! She burped and scratched her ass. Then stumbled over that bucket of Herb's Shampoo got rid of earlier. When she went home, she couldn't change back into a guy even with the hottest water.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The End.


	16. WR16: Akane's Ending

You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane" Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

----------

"Have you told Mr. Tendo yet?" Ranma asked.

"None of your business, Ranma!" Akane was angry for being eavesdropped on, again.

Ranma turned to walk away. "You probably should you know." And then he was gone.

Akane looked over at Ukyo and Shampoo. "Was he threatening me?" Ukyo and Shampoo only looked dumbfounded.

----------

Later that night, Akane went home, feeling uneasy. With good reason, the moment she entered the house, she could feel the tension in the air. Ranma had made it home first.

Tension grew when she found Soun waiting for her. He was dressed in his formal kimono, and sitting as if waiting for tea ceremony. A ceremonial blade and a katana sat next to him.

Akane gulped. Maybe she reassured Shampoo and Ukyo too soon about that seppuku thing...

The End.


	17. WR17: Cliche Ending

"You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane." Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

----------

"That's right, I was eavesdropping," Ranma said, "But I'm not alone." Then female Ranma came from behind him.

"WHAT THE HELL?"

Ranma-chan shrugged. "Had to use this Fanfic cliche' eventually.

"How... how did you do it?" Akane wanted to know. Shampoo was poking at female Ranma to see if she was real.

She was. "Mmmm.. that feels nice.."

Shampoo was grinning kind of evilly.

"Plot hole" Male Ranma shrugged.

Akane looked at Ukyo. Did they really want to go against the name of this story? Shampoo was giving them, "Can I keep her?" looks, while her hand cupped and rubbed Ranma-chan's breast, as if of it's own accord.

"Well... we could use at least ONE ending where Ranma-chan joins the harem.." So she does.

The End.


	18. WR18: Incestuous Ending

"You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane." Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

----------

"If that's what you think, Akane, fine then! I never wanted to marry you, anyway. I'll just go marry Nabiki or Kasumi!"

That's when Nabiki and Kasumi popped up. "I don't think so Ranma." the middle Tendo replied. "You see, we're actually going to join AKANE."

"Say, what?" Ranma and Akane and Ukyo, and Shampoo all said.

"Oh my, yes!" Kasumi answered, one hand to her cheek. "Akane seems to be having so much fun, we couldn't help but join in."

"Do you really mean it, sis?" Akane asked, all happy. She'd always harbored incestuous feelings for her two older sisters. Nabiki gave her a thumbs up and Kasumi just smiled sunnily. "Now we can start the Tendo school of marital arts!" And they let out a cheer, then went back inside to 'celebrate', leaving Ranma with jaw on the ground.

"Hey, I was a member of that school, too, you know!" That was one of his favorite lemons, where he even slept with his sister. He always wanted a sister to sleep with.

Ranma decided to go and find a plot hole to separate himself so he could.

The End.


	19. WR19: Repeating Ending

"You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane." Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

----------

"It's okay, Akane," Ranma said, serenely. "I decided that you're right, and I will stop hounding you. If you don't want to be with me anymore, then you don't have to.

Akane blinked. "Really?" Gee, he was certainly taking this rather well.

"Yes, really, cause today.. I finally fell in love!"

"WHAT?" the three girls all shrieked.

"Yes, now I know what love really is supposed to be like!" Shampoo, Ukyo and Akane all looked at each other, then back at Ranma.

"That's nice, Ran-chan, who's the lucky girl?" Ukyo finally said.

Ranma grinned and puffed out his chest proudly. "Akari!" and said girl and giant sumo pig stepped into the light from the street lamp.

"Akari?" The FORMER fianceés all cried at once.

"Yes! And you're all invited to the wedding!" Ranma embraced the NEW love of his life, clutching one of her hands in his and pulling her close. Akari just "tee-heed", blushing daintily. The three girls face-faulted.

The End.


	20. WR20: Shampoo's Ending

"You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane." Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

----------

"Well, I officially give up on, you too, Akane!" He then turned and stormed off.

Akane blinked. "Uhh.. ok then.." She turned back to the others. "Shall we?" And she toward the upstairs apartment, grinning.

"You go on ahead," Shampoo said, "I have to go do something."

"You ok Sugar?" Ukyo looked at her with concern, it wasn't like Shampoo not to gung-ho about playing. Shampoo nodded. Still casting the Amazon worried looks, Akane and Ukyo joined hands, then headed up to Shampoo's room to await her.

Shampoo watched them go, grinning mischievously to herself. She couldn't believe how well her plan worked. Now after months of waiting she could finally go and nab Ranma for herself! So, cackling like a banshee and completely disregarding the point of the story, Shampoo pranced off after Ranma.

The End.


	21. WR21: Repeating Ending

"You don't have to wait long to tell me, Akane." Ranma said, stepping out of the shadows of the back alley.

"Ranma!" All three jumped, shocked that he'd been snooping around, eavesdropping.

----------

"It's okay, Akane," Ranma said, serenely. "I decided that you're right, and I will stop hounding you. If you don't want to be with me anymore, then you don't have to.

Akane blinked. "Really?" Gee, he was certainly taking this rather well.

"Yes, really, cause today.. I finally fell in love!"

"WHAT?" the three girls all shrieked.

"Yes, now I know what love really is supposed to be like!" Shampoo, Ukyo and Akane all looked at each other, then back at Ranma.

"That's nice, Ran-chan, who's the lucky girl?" Ukyo finally said.

Ranma grinned and puffed out his chest proudly. "Cologne!" and said mummified ghoul pogo-ed into the light from the street lamp.

"COLOGNE?" The FORMER fianceés all cried at once, horrified.

"Yes! And you're all invited to the wedding!" Ranma embraced the NEW love of his life, clutching one of her hands in his and pulling her close.

"Shampoo, do you remember that Octopus we had for dinner last night? Well guess what? I found that 'Lifetime' pill in it!" And she began cackling deliriously.

The three girls then bashed themselves into unconsciousness against the wall, just to rid themselves of the DISGUSTING mental images.

The End.


End file.
